Howl
by dragonett3
Summary: About a girl called Emily, who in a rage, finds herself a wolf with powers to summon fire. She is captured and tranquilized by mysterious men wearing black and her adventure begins. Perfect for anyone who loves magic and wolves.
1. Chapter 1

_**Prolouge**_

_Midnight on the cliff side. The torrential rain and wind bowed the thick trees like crippled old men. Lightning flashed fitfully, briefly illuminating the shape of the swollen river below._

_A wolf emerged from the bent trees, grey fur matted and slick with mud and woodland debris. She squinted up at the sky, searching for the moon; but the dark clouds had stolen its light._

_The wolf howled, her ancient body shuddering with exertion, her song pouring from her grizzled, grey muzzle._

_The howl gathered on the edge of the cliff in the form of a shining, multihued light. More and more leapt from the old wolfs jaws and it grouped, massing together as a new, glowing wolf formed of the luminosity. The light-wolf paused a while, watching the old she-wolf. It threw its head back and howled with her, weaving a new song, two voices raised in harmony._

_In that eternal moment, the inhabitants of Earth were still; even the plants ceased rustling their leaves, although the storm had not passed. A passing fox halted and pricked its ears, listening to the song. Cities came to a standstill; traffic lights turned green and no cars leaped forwards. They heard only the song._

_The old wolf opened her golden eyes, face illuminated sharply by a flash of lightning, listening to the searching of the song still sung by the light-wolf. All heard it, but the song searched for the six. First came fire, in the form of a girl, and the song poured into her soul, shaping her future and changing her destiny forever. She was followed by water and earth together in a boy and girl. Air echoed in the soul of another girl and electricity and spirit in two boys._

_In unison with the songs' discovery of each element, the ancient wolfs' golden eyes burned new colours; red, blue, green, grey, yellow, then deepest black. She clenched her eyes shut, the light was blinding._

_Elements found, the song thundered back to the old wolf, its power knocking her off her feet. The wolf of light morphed to a raven and flew back through the rain into the dark trees, it could do nothing for the old wolf now, the song had completed its' task._

_Panting heavily, the ancient she-wolf opened her eyes to hear the last echoes of the song. The lightning still flashed, but the wolfs eyes saw nothing, they were bone white. She knew that her work was done; the burning of the elements had blinded her and bleached her coat colourless. She would live in darkness until her death. The old wolf turned from the cliff edge, last thing she ever saw, and walked back into the forest. Destiny had been set into motion; nothing will ever be the same again._

* * *

Emily ran. She ran for what she thought was her life, and, even if it wasn't for that, she ran for her freedom. If anyone had gathered their wits together and told someone what had happened, Emily was in danger.

She was scared, shaking, in shock. As she remembered, a shiver of horror rippled the thick fur of her hackles on her lupine body and she stumbled for a moment, her legs giving way. Her fur was clotted with mud and sweat. It was because of Amy. It was Amy who Emily had thought was her friend, but who had done nothing to help her as she lay on the concrete floor of the playground, convulsing with the pain of her transformation. Also Emily growled viciously and lifted her lip to bare her sharp, curved fangs as she remembered, but this wasn't because of Amy, it was her, not so much friend, rather 'acquaintance', Chloe. _It was her fault_, the feral snarl said, _she made me like this_. Emily shook her head. She was overrun by the memory.

_*Before*_

"_Oi, ginger!" spat a deep voice._

_The old Emily hadn't stopped walking, and was trying to ignore the voice, closing her eyes and praying she would be left alone. She'd squealed as the hand grabbed her long, red hair, ripping some of the flowing strands from her scalp. Chloe laughed._ "_You afraid, ginger?" Chloe then slapped her, right across her face, so hard that Emily had fallen over backwards. She winced and felt the back of her head, she had hit it hard. She brought back her hand, it was dyed red. The blood trickled down her neck and seeped into the dark blue fleece and blouse of her uniform Chloe laughed pitilessly. She was short and circular with a round face encased with thick dark hair. She had a tall sidekick with short black hair called Hannah who was loitering behind her, smirking spitefully, she had large buck teeth which were often laughed at by casually cruel children. Hannah had one comeback that she recycled over again when someone mentioned her teeth, "Yeah, well, I can get braces for my teeth, what you gonna do about your face!" _

_Emily wasn't scared of Chloe, not this time. Her body shuddered as she felt a hot, surging anger pouring through her like an acid; she honestly wanted to attack her, but she was a petite girl, and doing this would most likely cause more damage on her then the her persecutor. Now there was a crowd of children gathered to watch the action, chanting 'fight, fight'. Another wave of anger crashed through Emily, leaving her gasping for air, as she saw some of her old friends laughing, they never helped her when Chloe bullied her, but it still gave her a twinge of hurt, like pain from a long healed wound._

_But, maybe if Amy hadn't had been there nothing terrible would have happened, Emily wouldn't have changed, she would still be a normal human going about her normal life, even if it meant being beaten up every lunch. But Amy was there and something terrible did happen; Emily's life was changed irreparably. Instead of helping her, Amy had glared down at Emily contemptuously, back from the safety of the jeering crowd. As yet another surge of red hot fury raced through her bloodstream, unstoppable as the sea tide, rage wasn't all that Emily was feeling. Now a fiery pain was tearing her limb from limb, and she wasn't the only one screaming. Chloe was staring at her with a mixture of horror and shock letting out a long, strangled gasp. _

_Her uniform shivered into a thick pelt, her arms and legs shortened and thinned, fingers shrinking and fusing into paws, she felt her stubby nails lengthen and sharpen forming vicious claws. The base of her spine grew, sprouting long fur that waved in the breeze. Her knees inverted, hocks taking their place. Her jaws jutted forwards, sharp canine teeth erupting from the freshly formed muzzle. Skin loosened around her neck, the longest, wiriest hair flowed over her shoulders and down her spine, her hackles. She flexed her paws and the superfine velvet fur between her pads moved luxuriously. _

_As Emily lifted her new wolf body, raised her new wolf head and sang out in her new wolf voice, most of the jeering crowd that had been watching her torment ran away shrieking and crying like ghouls. Emily started as she finally realised what had happened to her and she, quite literally, turned tail and ran._

_She pelted towards the remaining stragglers that were standing gaping, open-mouthed. Her muscles felt slick and smooth and strong, her new body was so much more adapted than her human one. Emily could smell the fear and confusion on the nearby school pupils and, remarkably, hear the cars thundering by on the faraway motorway. Each part of her was taut and usable, no energy went to waste. Emily pushed through the crowd and the students recoiled as the huge wolf brushed past them, she leapt over the low gate and shot into the hedge, crawling on her belly under the branches towards where she knew there was a forest._

_Emily tried to cross at a deserted road, but cowered back into the bush when a truck rattled past, and seeing the drivers astonished expression she laughed quietly, and listened in wonder to the low barky growls that came from her pointed muzzle. She poked out her head and looked around, turning her large dished ears this way and that. It seemed empty. She saw adults in their homes, cooking, watching television, working at computers and thought, wistfully that she would never live a normal life again. She trotted out, passing a nursery. Emily heard a small child calling out to a parent: "'Ook, 'ook, mummy, dats a big 'ox!". She ran away before she was seen, thinking scornfully and slightly indignantly that young children should make it their first priority to learn to tell the difference between foxes and a wolf. Maybe a large dog, but not a stinking, sneaking, mangy fox! Anyway, wolves are grey, black or brownish. Foxes are red! Emily shook her head in exasperation and moved on. _

_*Later*_

She was running fluidly and quickly through dark back alleyway smothered in rubbish towards a scent that she half recognised, that she had never smelt before. As she splashed through a muddy puddle she caught a glance of her reflection and stopped. Emily looked down at it through the plastic bag floating on the murky water and stared in shock. Instead of a pale human face with ginger hair and a scattering of golden freckles over her nose, looking back at her was a huge, furred wolf face with bright _green_ eyes, green as oak leaves in the sun. If Emily had been a strange human she was an even stranger wolf. Not only did she have the same piercing green eyes that she had had as a human instead of golden lupine ones, but she was red, a deep, fiery red, with flecks of orange and ashy grey. That's what that kid had been talking about. As a child, she probably would have confused a red wolf with a fox. Emily sighed, which sounded to her like a wheezy whine, drooping her magnificently bushy tail. Could she ever be normal? She sighed again and carried on with her journey to nowhere.

_*Later*_

Emily had reached the woods; the trees were dark and comforting. After the panic and general shock of finding yourself a wolf, and a red one at that, the calm of being under cool, shady trees was a relief. Emily suddenly felt an impact on her back, lurched forwards and shuddered. Then, for the second time in that hectic day of change, pain hit Emily. But, instead of pain mixed with hot anger; the bitterest tasting cocktail, this was sharp pain and fuzzy weariness, contrasting; she felt she just wanted to go to sleep, despite the mind numbing pain. Emily shook her head in confusion. _Her eyes were being fogged by a blanket of grey_. Emily turned and saw a man with a gun half hidden among the trees, _grey, grey_. Another thing that she saw made her wolf blood run cold, not the other black-clad men running towards her, but the dart in her back, _grey, _a dart with a strange, bristly red flight. _Grey_. A tranquiliser dart. _Grey_. Emily cried out in disgust and shock. _Grey_. Emily collapsed, head resting on the forest floor, whining softly, pitifully, _please,_ _help, leave me, please.__ The grey claimed her. _Emily passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you OK?"

Voices were sounding in Emily's head, echoing round her empty mind like a deserted church. There was no thoughts cluttering her previously panicked and confused mind, her primeval canine instinct was to carry on sleeping until she was fresh and her brain was clear. She had curled up to half her size with her muzzle hidden under her paw and her fluffed tail curled over her glimmering green eyes.

"Hello?" the voice persisted.

Emily raised her head groggily and looked around at this latest comment. She started in disbelief. She was in a _cage. _It wasn't very big either; if she stretched out her tail and snout they bumped painfully against the metal bars. The cage was in what looked like a huge cold warehouse, grey and empty, well, other than a couple of empty cages and some tables loaded with wires and chemicals and meaningless electrical equipment on them. A wide window, with a spider-webbing of smashed glass stared balefully down at her, shivering her fur with a frosty breeze. It was cloudy and dark outside; it seemed she had been sleeping for a while. Her head drooped, she was _so_ tired.

"Excuse me... _Hello_?"

Emily looked up again, sharply. In a slightly bigger cage next to her was another _wolf_. He was sitting up, ears pricked, his blue eyes sparkling with curiosity. Like Emily, he was also a strange colour. Blue, a darkish, grey-flecked, rich royal blue, but clearly blue nether the less.

"Hi" Emily said weakly, but she was wary, unsure as to if the stranger wolf was friendly.

"Tranqualiser'll wear off in a minute, don't worry!" reassured the blue wolf, who seemed excited about something unknown to her.

"Great... cos' right now I could, like, go straight back to sleep," She yawned enormously. "Um. Yeah. Who are _you_ then? What is this place?" asked Emily, sleepily.

"Sorry! Wow! I mean, _wow_! I'm Michael, but to your second question I have utterly no idea! Must be some weirdo research place," he stuttered enthusiastically "cos' don't know 'bout you but I was actually born a human, I'm kinda not supposed to be a wolf! Oh, yeah... and umm, what's your name?"

"Emily, and about the human thing, same" Emily answered shortly, wondering why he was talking in exclamation marks. She could no way be bothered with crazy over-excited blue wolves today.

"Really? You're a bit of a funny colour for a wolf aren't you? You could be an oversized fox."

"Excuse _me_!" snapped Emily, offended. The fact that she had recently been shot and shoved in a tiny cage had left her with a short temper and a foul mood. Having another person confuse her with a fox was pretty vexing; "Dunno when _you_ last looked in the mirror, but I thought _blue_ was a weird colour for a wolf too!" she finished, patronisingly.

"I'm _blue! _You sure it's not just a weird black?" exclaimed Michael, apparently surprised by Emily's revelation.

"Uh, well yeah! Pretty sure there's kind of a bit of a difference between blue and black," snapped the red wolf.

"Bloody hell. I though red was weird," he sniffed and thought for a moment, "Have you got any _powers_?" Michael talked slowly, as if he was working out every word before he spoke, or that he considered Emily of limited intelligence and didn't want to confuse her (which enraged her even more).

"Powers? What the hell are you going on about now?" spat Emily, fuming.

"Oh, you haven't got any MAGIC POWERS?" he said dramatically, "I thought that, because I'm a weird colour (according to you) and I can do stuff, I thought that because, you're a weird colour (according to me) you can do stuff too! AND, obviously the fact that we both turned into wolves. Can I show you what I can do?" without waiting for Emily to reply, Michael started howling mournfully. After a minute of the shrill ringing song echoing around the empty building, Emily started to protest.

"_Howl?_ Is that _it_? All wolves can-"

It had started to rain. Inside the building! There were dark clouds rolling across the ceiling and Emily could hear the rumble of thunder. It was just like a storm, but inside. Her fur was slicked across her back and water dripped into her eyes, she blinked rapidly to clear them.

"Cool, huh?" laughed Michael.

"How- _how do you do that_, it's amazing!" asked an awed Emily after the storm blew out, but she felt strangely queasy and nauseous now that her fur was wet. She shook herself, trying to clear not only her fur of the water, but her head of the seeping sickness dulling her senses.

"I just howl, howl and think of water and sadness and water and wetness and rain. I first found I could do that like... yesterday... I think, sometime yesterday. I was really miserable, staying in a cage for one day is bad enough, but I've been here... uhh... about a day, I think." He flashed her a grin. "So I was just like, _hooooooooowl_, y'know. Trying really hard to annoy whoever was keeping us locked up here. And, as soon as I stopped howling, it started to rain, only for a few seconds, but... I just kept on doing it and it just got easier..." Michael stopped and thought for a second. "Maybe, because I'm blue, I can make water... and rain! Because you're red, maybe, maybe, maybe you can make fire! That'd be SO COOL! Try! Come on!"

Emily rolled her eyes. Now she was stuck with an over-imaginative boy... And of _course_ she was going to have special magic powers. What the hell was going on.

"Ummm... Michael. How exactly do I try?" queried Emily, patronizingly, deciding to humour the stupid kid.

"Think of fire and heat and hotness and burning and... stuff. Now howl!"

She did. Although she thought the whole exercise was ridiculous, it felt so good to just vent out her feelings, the howl expressed everything in her mind without her saying a single word. Emily could have just howled and howled, forever. The mournful tone faltered and she stopped, and waited... and waited, five, ten, twenty seconds. Nothing happened. There was no magic explosion, nor did an inferno of flames erupt from the floor. And even though she would never admit it to the other wolf she was disappointed, she had been secretly hoping... maybe, just maybe. Emily sighed.

"Maybe it's just me." said Michael, sighing as well.

"Maybe" Emily was bitterly disappointed. She howled again, but angrily now. Why had she let herself be led on by this foolish wolf-child only to be let down at the last hurdle?

Michael barked in shock, bathed in orange light that reflected red off of his eyes, retreating to the corner of his cage with his dish-like ears plastered against his head.

"Emily, your cage is on fire! You've got to get out!"

Emily snapped her eyes open. He was right! She had created fire! Her heart leapt with excitement until she thudded back down to earth, she was in danger. She screamed and it came out as a shrill whine-like yelp. She backed away from the portion of her burning cage that she could see, flames licking down the metal that was just beginning to melt like wax. She carried on backing out when she felt no resistance. She turned round, confused, was the cage larger than she had expected? Emily's jaw dropped. She had walked right through the flames and melting metal that engulfed her cage.

"Emi-ly! Howl again! Get me out too!" bellowed Michael to her.

"Did you see? I walked through the flames!"

"Just howl!"

"How will that help?"

"Just howl!"

"But how'll that help you get out?"

"HOWL!"

"But-"

"Just damn well howl, Emily!"

"Fine! _Idiot_"

By now the fire alarm had started, sensing the roiling black smoke that curled from the flames still burning on the crate that Emily had just left. Soon it would be too late, and the humans would come and put them back in the cages, _no_! One day is enough for _anyone_ in a cage. She would _never_ go back in one, ever. Emily thought of how unfair it was that Michael wasn't free too. She howled again, but this was a short, angry howl. Mike's cage burst into flame.

"Now my cage is on fire too! How do I get out?" he whimpered.

"_Really? _You_ realised?_ Oh yeah, nice one! I did _try_ to warn you! But no! You decided not to listen to me! Typical boy! You always think you know best, don't you-"

"Emily, shut up! How am I gonna get out?" Michael snapped interrupting Emily mid-rant.

"If I can go through hot things, you can probably run through wet stuff! Make it rain, that'll also extinguish the fire and stop that damned alarm!"

Michael howled, and the heavens opened for the second time that night. When the fire was out (on his and Emily's cage) and the blue wolf's cage was dripping wet, he passed through the bars of his prison. Emily felt a wave of nausea again exhaustion swept over her in a sickening wave. She swayed for a moment and almost stumbled.

"We're free!" Michael exclaimed happily, or he was going to. But he stiffened and spun around, the longer fur of his hackles sticking up like a wire brush; Emily looked over his shoulder and glimpsed two men in black entering the giant warehouse, they must have been alerted by the alarm!

"Hide!" she hissed to Michael.

But Michael didn't move. He was frozen to the spot, unmoving, as if ice was indeed gluing his paws to the grey concrete.

"_Sandy_?" he whispered.

"Michael, come _on_!" Emily whispered back as loud as she dared. "Those humans will see that you've got out!" As she dragged him behind a row of boxes bearing strange scientific equipment, and thought how it felt strange to talk about her own kind like that, but, she thought, they're not my kind any more.

Then Emily finally saw what he was actually staring at. On a heavy chain lead with a strong leather collar around its neck, was another wolf, walking beside the two men, with a drooped head and tail, her ears flopping depressively. Like Emily and Michael, this wolf was a strange colour; green! Green with small brown flecks complementing the leafy colour, like spots of dirt littering a lawn of grass. The green wolf also stopped and stiffened, dittoing Michael's movement. She then hauled the thick leash out of the man's hand. He yelled and pointed. The other wolf was running straight towards Emily and Michael!

"Emily! That wolf... It's my sister, it's my sister Sandy! Sandy! She obviously became a wolf too! We've got to save her... somehow..." yelped Michael.

With a howl like a war-cry, he ran out of the hiding place towards the green wolf that was his sister Sandy. Emily ran after him, shaking her head at his stupidity. This was all happening a bit fast for her.

"Michael! Stop! They'll shoot you!" barked the green wolf that was Michael's sister Sandy. Indeed, as she said that, Emily saw the men load and point rifles at him.

"Emily! Make a wall of fire between us and the men!" bawled Michael. Too scared to say anything back, Emily let her head back and sang a short, fiery howl, thinking of how stupid Michael was for running out at the men.

A fire roared into life. The men yelled and dropped their weapons in surprise, the flames scorching their faces, gaping stupidly at the red wolf who had just summoned an inferno from thin air. One man's coat was flaming, he was trying desperately to smother the fire. Emily didn't really care about their safety, not after what they had done.

The wall of flames and roiling black smoke split the three wolves from the black-clad men, Michael glanced over at Sandy, who was standing nearest the fire, staring, mesmerised into the dancing flames. He stared closer. She seemed to be withering and turning greyish brown in the firelight, drooping even more with her tail starting to turn black, she collapsed, like a leaf that has been carelessly thrown onto a bonfire, that was about to catch light then shrivel up and die...

"Sandy! Get away from the fire! You're... burning!" gasped Michael, putting two and two together and trying to drag his sister from the inferno. Sandy seemed to wake up, realised what was happening and backed right away from the wall of flames with her ears back, she was shaking, and looking at the fire with new fear. But soon the bright green was flowing back into her dull coat, like a river of green clearing away grey mud after rain, and she started looking much better for it. She would never willingly go that close to fire again.

"What can we do?" she panted, anxiously, staring between her familiar brother as a wolf and the angry red-clad stranger next to him.

"Duh!" snapped Emily "We've got to get rid of those men! Burn them!"

"Have you got any powers that can help, Sandy?" inquired Michael with a faint sense of desperation, and hopelessness, after escaping the cages; he couldn't bear being forced into them again. It made sense in his mind that his sister _must_ have some magic that would save the day after her sudden appearance.

"Well... I can make plants grow... but only when I'm happy... and I howl. But I don't see how that can help!"

"Then howl, _think_ of something happy and make vines, y'know... to trip them up, then they might fall into the fire! It sounds a bit drastic, but, we have to get out of here and... they might... survive." She frowned, Emily was disturbed by the thought of taking lives.

"Perfect!" crowed the wolf siblings, clearly not.

They crowded together, whispering in low voices and casting dark, wary glances at the men through the smoke, who were pacing the length of the fiery wall, trying to find a weakness, glaring uneasily at the wolves. The wolves then broke apart, a plan clear in their minds.

"Ho-wl, ho-wl, ho-wl!" said Michael, sounding like a child trying to start a play ground chant.

Sandy did howl, quietly, then watched the two dark masses of ivy sprout, as if by magic, forcing themselves free from the concrete floor by the men's feet to form a tangled nest, hidden partially form the men's view by the dark smoke. She looked up, and nodded at Emily. Emily howled also, as if an answer to Sandy's call. Immediately, most of the wall of flame around the men was extinguished. This was the dangerous part; if they saw the ivy, or tripped onto the floor, not the fire, the whole plan wouldn't work and the wolves would be trapped against the wall.

But, to the small packs relief, the men didn't see the trailing of vines in front of their feet when the flames were doused and they started and ran forwards a few steps. Emily howled quickly and new flames sprang up in front of the charging men as they tripped, they're feet caught and held in place by the grasping ivy. They screamed as they burned, bound by the vines, and Emily shuddered darkly as the sound hit her sensitive velvet lined ears. Those shrieks were the last sound the men had made, and Emily didn't think that they'd let her sleep well that night.

They wandered towards the exit. Emily glanced back, the flames burning chaotically, starting to claim the building, before pushing the heavy wooden doors with a paw. The wolves stood in the doorway for a moment, staring at the peaceful forest outside, birds singing in their branches. To top off the bad day, it was raining heavily, the droplets sliding over the dark, shiny leaves that adorned the trees.

The wolves walked out of the dismal, burnt building. A symbol was etched into the concrete. Emily tried to make it out. It was of a wind racked tree, with a section of the foliage that was wreathed in flames, a part that looked like a waterfall was pouring down from it, a bit that had a thunder cloud with streaks of lightning erupting from it. In the heart of the tree was a strange dark circle.

"So, what do you think is going on here?" asked Emily after she had been introduced formally to Sandy. "I mean, it's not every day that a bunch of teenagers get transformed into magic rainbow wolves."

"I reckon there are more of us." reasoned Sandy.

"Probably." agreed Michael.

"If I'm earth ('cos I can grow stuff) and you're water and you're fire..." said Sandy pointing with her muzzle to Michael and Emily in turn.

"Then... there is an air one, y'know earth, air, fire and water! The elements!" exclaimed Emily.

"That's not really what we need to be worrying about right now." Michael said.

"What do you mean?" asked Emily.

"Well, we need to get out of here! And find somewhere to sleep! It must be past midnight already!"

"But where can we go?" asked Sandy, hopelessly.

"I think I know..." murmured Emily. Michael and Sandy stared at her as if she was mad.

"The day I first changed, there was this smell. I kind of recognised it... but I didn't know what it was... but now, I think I was smelling wolf."

The siblings were still staring at her.

"We could probably find a tree somewhere and sleep below that..." Emily trailed, embarrassed and trying to change the subject.

"How do you know that this stranger wolf wanted to help us?" questioned Sandy, suspicious, and clearly avoiding the feeble subject change.

"It didn't." answered Emily, seeing her attempt wasn't working.

"Why do-?" started Michael.

"It needed help itself."

***

That night Emily slept deeply and fitfully, tossing and turning, slipping into troubled dreams:

_Furor cried out. The voices... hissing voices. Malicious whisperings in his head, they would not leave him be. He clenched his dark pinkish-violet eyes tightly, like a young child hiding from monsters under the bed. He fought the hated black voices from within his mind, rocking slightly and shaking from exertion, despite his apparent lack of movement his black-purple fur was slick and matted with sweat. He tried to shield his mind and expel the alien consciousness from his thoughts, but they resisted, hammering against the defenses to his thoughts with a battering ram made of fire. _

_Slowly he was losing his senses, memories, the spiteful voices controlled everything. He couldn't remember what his human face looked like, his best friends name... his mums face... his real name. They whispered everything selfish and cruel that he had ever done, summoning the darkness from within him that he didn't know had existed._

_Furor opened his previously clenched eyes. They were black, like midnight on a starless night, but opaque, like a deep, muddy pool with seemingly no visible end. Yesss... hissed the malevolent voices, he iss ourss now..._


	3. Chapter 3

"Emily?" Michael asked.

They were moving on swiftly towards the place that Emily had smelt the other wolf. She loped quickly whilst pretending that she didn't notice Michael and Sandy whispering, trailing through the leaves a few meters behind her. Emily was achy and tired, she hadn't been granted rest as easily as the other two wolves, kept awake by the depraved dreams that had taunted her in her sleep. Earlier that night, she had awoken, panting, her red fur matted with sweat, and lain still, listening to the calmly singing bird calling their dawn chorus. What had that dream been? It was more vivid and _real _thanany other that had ever possessed her.

"Yess?" Emily answered, turning to face the colourful wolf siblings.

"Do you actually _know_ where we are going?"

"We're going to find and help the wolf in trouble that I had scented" Emily answered patronisingly, as if she was talking to a two year old, knowing very well that wasn't what Michael was asking her.

"No... I mean yes, but where actually _is_ it? As in... A place?"

"No idea." She answered, indifferent, or at least pretending not to care, if just to annoy Michael.

Emily turned her back on them and started running again, feeling the soft brown leaf litter under her sensitive paws, her sharp claws cutting deep furrows in the rain softened dirt. She could smell the small animals cowering in their burrows, afraid of the pack of hunters walking within their midst. And she knew they should be afraid, from a meter away, she could sense the heat of their bodies and her cupped ears were so sharp, she could hear their heart beats accelerating as she passed.

Michael persisted, "But, Emily. If you don't know where we're going, how do you know that we're not going the wrong way?" He seemed confused, shaking his head as he dragged on behind.

"Can't you feel it?" snapped Emily. Michael and Sandy looked at each other and shrugged, bemused. It was the maybe-she's-crazy-y'know look. Emily tried to explain: "Y'know; a funny pull feeling? Telling you it's the right way? ... No... Obviously not. Didn't you learn anything whilst you were human? Remember... Animals don't follow a map for heaven's sake! Instinct! That's how I know where I'm going! I do know that I'm going the right way! I just know!"

"Oh, alright then..."

After Emily's outburst, they continued in silence, listening to the cheep of the birdsong, watching the occasional flash of a panicked white tailed deer bolting from the scent of the danger. Golden leaves fluttered gently to the ground, raindrops from the previous night continually dripping, before the natural sounds were interrupted again...

"Emily...?"

"Yesss Michael?" asked Emily sweetly, sarcastically, like a carnivorous flower before it devours you alive.

"I'm... I'm hungry."

"Oh."

Now that he had mentioned it, the two girls felt it too. Hunger gnawed at the edges of their stomachs mildly, before mounting a full-frontal attack, tearing their insides with claws like razors. Their hearts sank, their situation was desperate, they were in the middle of a forest, it was getting dark, they were completely lost, hungry and with no place to sleep. And top it off the brief moment of sun had slid back behind the dark cloud-heads. It was starting to rain again, wet seemed to be the only weather option in this wretched place, water sliding off the shining dark green leaves and dripping onto Emily's muzzle. She shook her head, droplets of rain zinging out of her fur, slicking it to the back like gel. She sighed angrily. She hated the water now, it made her feel even more tired, sick and very short tempered.

"What can we do, Michael? What _can_ we do? I'm _tired_, we're _all_ hungry. There's only one way for us to get food, _one_! That _one_ way normally takes wolves years to master, and we've only _existed_ as wolves for a few days! Yeah, Michael, we _are_ hungry! What can we do about it? Only _one_ thing, I don't even want to think about it!"

"Hunting..." murmured Sandy.

"Eeeeew" complained Michael, shuddering.

"That's all we _can_ do! That's what _normal_ wolves have to do, yeah, I _know_ we're hardly normal wolves! But they don't even think twice about it!" Emily was starting to lose patience with Michael. "For tonight, we find ourselves somewhere to sleep, then, tomorrow, we'll have to hunt, or... we'll starve."

...

"Emily..."

"_**WHAT DO YOU WANT**_?"

"I'm vegetarian." Sandy said shortly.

"You're- Oh god. Sandy," Emily sighed; this was a complication that she hadn't foreseen. Could her life get any more complicated, this was the _last_ thing she needed. She said gently. "_Wolves_, Sandy. Yes, we aren't humans anymore, we virtually never were. We're wolves, like it or not, and carnivorous. Top of the food chain; top predator." Sandy looked disgusted. "Vegetarianism is a human thing. A vegetarian wolf starves."

"What?" Sandy snapped, angered. "So, I _survive_ if I kill, but I _die_ if I let others live... What makes _me_ more important than any other animal? What makes me _so important_, I can judge when it is time for an animal to _die_?"

"What makes a wolf more important? Nature does. God if you're religious. Nature designed wolves to come out on top, made carnivore eat herbivore. Nature _made_ predator greater than prey. It's the way the world works. I don't _like_ it, but I accept it. Nature knows best."

Sandy glowered at her.

"We need somewhere to sleep." Michael announced abruptly, trying to ease some of the tension between Emily and his sister, it was almost visible, a red static electricity joining them from the eyes. "But _where_, is the question." He said quizzically, looking at Emily, hoping for an answer.

"S'pose..." Emily wasn't really concentrating, "Maybe those bushes, they're well covered from this dratted rain, we won't stay properly dry... We don't have time to dig or find a den. We can find a hollow bush or tree trunk..." She trailed off feebly.

The siblings agreed silently, dropping down into the hollow, leafy centre of the bush with an exhausted huff. Sandy moaned a little at the mud and insects under the leaf litter. An owl hooted mournfully and they closed their eyes, so tired that even Michael fell asleep without complaining. Somewhere a twig cracked as some nocturnal animal shifted over it.

***

Emily lowered her crimson muzzle to scent the cloven hoof tracks. They had been hunting for about an hour through the murky half darkness of the deep forest and were tracking a small herd of deer, but hadn't caught a glimpse of them yet. They had slept well and were running fluidly; Emily was leading the hunt and concentrating hard. The rain that had fallen the day before had smeared the tracks and scattered the scent, making tracking difficult.

"They passed this way yesterday," murmured Emily softly.

"Sure?" asked Michael quietly. They had discovered that Emily's sense of smell was far superior to that of either of the twins. Michael sniffed loudly, but it sounded more like him clearing his nose than trying to hunt deer.

"Positive," She answered. "They're travelling north, we're down-wind of them and unless they didn't stop for the night, they'll only be a few miles away. Run quickly and silently...what the-? ...hm." Emily frowned.

"What's up?" asked Sandy quizzically, raising a furry eyebrow.

"Nothing..." Strange; Emily could have sworn that she could smell a strange wolf. Must have just been the wind playing tricks on her. Doesn't matter, s'pose.

They loped on north, following the rain corroded tracks that twisted through the dark trees. The small pack was lucky that they were down-wind of the deer, if they weren't the animals would have scented the danger and run away fast.

The wolves padded on, past evidence that the herd had passed; not just tracks, snags of fur, bark rubbed off of trees. There clearly weren't many predators in the woods; otherwise the deer would have been more careful. Emily felt the weird rush of the hunt gallop at full pace through her veins, she felt strong and in control. These emotions felt completely alien to her; at school she had been singled out, bullied and beaten into submission because of her hair. She'd felt small, worthless and stupid. That had all been changed now. Now she was a wolf, leading the hunt and it felt good.

"There!" hissed Michael.

There they were. Emily scanned the group, looking for one that might be old, weak, ill or spaced away from the herd. It seemed that the deer had decided to take a rest in a small clearing in the forest. There were thick trees surrounding the flower littered glade, a perfect opportunity for a wolf ambush.

Emily spotted a small doe, lying about five meters from the concealed wolves, with one leg twisted out awkwardly behind her. She wouldn't last long with the group; it seemed she had broken her leg and would soon fall behind. And she would be easier to bring down.

"Michael, Sandy, that one there, closest to us. The one with the broken leg," whispered Emily to the siblings.

"You can't kill it, it's injured!" protested Sandy quietly. Michael sighed and rolled his eyes, Emily tried patiently to explain to Sandy.

"Exactly," Emily whispered. "Can't you see she's in pain? The doe will hurt more if she tries to keep up! Wolves are there in the wild to cull the animals not strong enough to survive, we're saving her days of suffering. Don't think on a human level; give yourself over to the wolf."

Emily looked at Sandy, and watched as her eyes clouded over, lost any form of intelligence. Her warm brown eyes darkened to animal awareness, she dropped to a hunting crouch, stalking slightly forwards through the thicket of trees. Mike followed with dull eyes, his light blue belly fur dragging in the mud. Emily crept towards the deer.

She looked at Michael and signalled him forwards. She paused and observed their prey. The deer seemed wary, they were restless. A young fawn glanced up with huge black eyes; he had to be less than a year old. The human inside Emily winced, but the wolf's heart quickened and danced with anticipation. Sandy panted excitedly.

"Don't break from the tree cover until I say," Emily instructed the twins softly.

They stepped forwards in synchronisation. Only their noses stood out from the shade. Emily was counting in her head, waiting for the pacing of the deer herd to form a space in front of their injured comrade. Michael was stepping from foot to foot in succession, Sandy continued panting heavily.

The siblings exchanged a glance and stepped again. Emily hissed, glaring at them, willing them to stop. They didn't. The deer looked up suddenly in surprise and then fear as a blue and green streak pelted from the trees and towards them.

"No! Too early!" growled Emily. Damn it! She sprung forwards in desperation, snapping at the injured doe, it screamed in fear and jumped forwards, limping slightly. Emily cursed then snarled in frustration. Sandy and Michael were running in all directions chasing the scattered deer. Emily stood back as the two wolves came together on the panicked animals and they galloped in a line with the siblings snapping at their short tails. Michael tripped and Sandy, who had been close on his heels paused in shock, apparently realising for the first time what she had been doing.

And as she whined in horror the herd ran and disappeared into the trees.


	4. Chapter 4

"Damn! Damn! Damn!" Emily shrieked. If she'd been human at that moment she would have been tearing her hair out. Sandy stared blankly at the forest floor, looking sickened, and it wasn't just the green fur. Michael shuffled awkwardly and slightly sheepishly in the leaf litter, not raising his eyes from the ground.

"Why did you go?" Emily ranted, "honestly, why? There was no chance of catching the deer like that! Why didn't you just bloody wait? Did I say go? No, I didn't! No, not at all! You just went! Just like that, just like that! Just. Like. That." Emily paused and breathed. She seemed to have got most of her rage out of her system. Then her eyes bulged, she took a huge breath and howled loud enough to burst the ear drums of a wolf a mile away.

There was a deep rumbling...

Emily suddenly remembered what happened when she was angry and howled. Michael and Sandy slowly backed away, and then ran as fast as they could for cover.

"Crap."

The ground shuddered with the pressure of the explosion. The very air the wolves were breathing seemed to be aflame, burning up their noses. The wind roared. An inferno clawed its way from the breaches of hell, from which it must have originated. And Emily stood in the midst of a firestorm that had ancient oaks two metres thick screaming for mercy. Michael howled for rain in a pitiful attempt to quench the blaze, but the droplets evaporated before they even formed.

Through the heat haze, the twins saw Emily's usually green eyes glow a quite different colour: red. She held her head low in front of her legs, heaving the flaming oxygen into her lungs. She raised her head, eyes flaming like twin stars, and let a high howl rent the burning air.

The fire flared more powerfully, licking the sky, then sank immediately with a puff of smoke, the only trace being a huge black circle of scorched ground devoid of any form of life. Emily breathed steadily. Michael and Sandy stared in shock as her eyes throbbed from the burning red, through a blazing yellow, then returned to their previous hue.

"Sorry about that."

The twins looked at each other, and then exhaled shakily.

"Looks like someone had a temper tantrum," drawled a voice from deep within the trees.

"What?"growled Emily, raising her head immediately, lifting her lip to expose her curved teeth.

A pale grey wolf slid from the semi-darkness that always engulfed the forest.

As she came closer, it was clear that she was no ordinary wolf. In the half light her silky coat shimmered a light blue-grey, with long darker blue hairs down her hackles, not nearly as bright as Michael's but definitely there. Her overall appearance was very pale, with very long elegant fur. And her eyes were a dull sky blue.

"Hello," said the grey wolf formally. "Sorry if interrupted something"- she smirked- "but I could think of another way to make myself apparent." She moved forwards and Emily growled.

"I say, you're in a bit of a bad mood, aren't you?" the stranger pronounced, smirking again, looking down her long nose at the two she-wolves. "Does she bite?" the grey wolf asked Michael mockingly.

"Sometimes," he answered jokingly. "When she's in a bad mood." He gestured to the burnt out scenery with his snout.

Also looking at the blackened forest, she said: "Unsuccessful hunting, I take it?"

Emily muttered under her breath. "And whose fault was that then?" Michael looked around and glared at her.

"Yeah, just a bit. I'm Mike."

Sandy stiffened and ground her razor sharp teeth. When Emily nudged her questionably, she hissed quietly to her: "He doesn't even let me call him Mike, and _I'm _his _sister_!"

Unaware of Sandy's bitter aside the new wolf said: "Hello Mike, I'm Guinevere. But _you_ can call me Gwen. And don't worry about the lack of success in hunting; it's not your fault, hunting's all in the leading."

Emily snarled viciously. Michael frowned disapprovingly. Gwen sneered. Sandy looked at Emily and started slightly when her eyes started to flush yellow in the centre; she grabbed the fuming red wolf by her scruff with her teeth and pulled her out of the way.

"Emily. Emily, snap out of it." Sandy hissed.

Gwen snorted scornfully, Michael looked embarrassed. He nudged her and murmured something that sounded like: "Talk about overreaction, let's give her some space to calm down." They wandered over to under the dark trees.

"Who does she think she is?" scowled Emily.

"I know."

"She thinks she's so superior," Emily snarled. "_Don't worry, hunting's all in the leading_," she mocked sneeringly, glaring at _Mike_ and Gwen.

"Yes, Emily," Sandy said soothingly.

"She's such a-"

"Emily," Sandy intervened warningly.

"Sorry. That sort of thing really irritates me. I've think I've got a really short temper."

"_Really_?" Sandy said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I guess that's kinda obvious, huh?"

"Just a little."

A twig cracked and they turned to glower simultaneously at Michael and Gwen approaching.

"Wha'd'you want?" muttered Emily.

"I've invited Gwen to join in on our mysterious `quest'." Michael announced grandly.

"What?!" exclaimed Emily and Sandy concurrently.

Gwen looked affronted. It was Michael's turn to be angry.

"Don't you get it!" he shouted, "Gwen is one of us; she makes wind!"

Sandy raised one furred eyebrow, Emily sniggered at the double meaning.

"Oh, just shut it, Emily!"

She stopped and narrowed her eyes at Michael.

"Earth, _air_, fire and water! It's just like we said, the elements! With Gwen we might be able to find out what all of this was about."

"Um. Excuse me, _Mike_. Sorry to interrupt your planning to find your greater meaning of life, but it seems that we have forgotten our wolfy friend who is in trouble?" questioned Emily leeringly.

"Wha?" queried Gwen in confusion.

"Emily smelt a wolf in trouble when she first changed," Michael explained quickly.

"When she _first_ became a wolf? How do we know that the _all wonderful_ Emily wasn't just smell herself?" insisted Gwen.

"Because," spat Emily, "I dreamt about him!"

"You never told us about that!" protested Michael.

"Because we were hunting, then I was destroying the forest in a mad rage, then you were talking to Wind Face. I think he's an element too, he hears spirit voices. I think he's been possessed in some weird kind of way," Emily paused, "And it's almost too late, if we're going to save him we need to be quick."

"Why should we?" Gwen said carelessly. "He can sort out his own problems."

"Don't you think of anyone but yourself, Gwen?! And anyway, who made you in charge? You aren't even part of our pack!" Emily had fully decided that she really hated Gwen.

"Oh, so it's _Gwen_ now? What happened to Wind Face?"

"She went away; I think I'm going to miss her." Emily answered in a biting tone.

Gwen snarled.

"We save him."

"We leave him."

"We save him!"

"We leave him!"

"Save him!"

"Leave him, leave him, leave him-"

Gwen was interrupted by Emily lunging at her with open jaws. A wolf attacking you is bad at the best of times, but what if the wolf was a pyromaniac?

"Why you little-"growled Gwen.

She bit Emily in the scruff of her neck and flung her into a tree. Emily shuddered, picked herself up and leapt at Gwen, sinking her teeth into the grey wolf's flank. Gwen howled with pain and slashed Emily's face with her daggered paws. She then fell back and the two wolves circled, snapping at each other occasionally. In unison, Emily and Gwen's eyes glowed, the fires wolf's bright red orange, the air, a brighter sky blue.

Gwen crouched for a moment and pounced with extended claws. She landed on Emily's back, who faltered. Subsequently Gwen fell as Emily twisted and grabbed her neck and shook her, drawing blood. Gwen sank to the floor with Emily standing over her, victorious. She panted, was shaking and had claw marks across her face. Gwen wasn't in much better shape. The wolf's eyes throbbed simultaneously then lost their luminosity.

"We help him," she said quietly staring straight into the eyes of the wolf cowering below her, and walked to stand with the rest of her pack, who had been staring through the whole death match, watching, frozen with horror, as the two livid wolves tried to rip each other apart.

Gwen trembled to her feet, shook herself and stood swaying slightly.

"I will not go anywhere with her!" shrieked Gwen after she'd recovered, "Not now, not ever!"

"Sore loser," accused Sandy quietly. Emily stood staring at her.

"Well then. Guinevere," Michael said frostily, "if you won't travel with Emily, you're not coming with us."

Sandy looked at her brother and smiled. Gwen stuttered in shock for a moment, and then fell silent. Emily looked at Michael with a wagging tail.

"Thanks, Mike. Thanks."

***

"Don't worry Chloe, you can trust me, just tell me what you saw."

Chloe looked uneasily up at the tall, gaunt man who had come to talk to her. He had grey hair, tired, grey eyes, a black pinstripe suit and black shoes so shiny that Chloe could see her face in them. An oversized black Alsatian with glowing ice-blue eyes paced restlessly around his chair, occasionally growling to himself.

"Well... she just fell to the floor. She was just so, _so_ angry. She fell as a human..." She tailed off. Telling didn't seem such a good idea anymore.

"Carry on Chloe."

"... And she got up as a wolf... a red one."


	5. Chapter 5

"D'you know, I was wondering, why do you think we're multi-coloured?" asked Mike.

"It's kind of obvious, isn't it?" answered Emily, "Colour shows our element. Doesn't really help with camouflage, unless of course you're Sandy."-Sandy blushed- "But colour must be a kind of billboard for our magic. Like, if you saw me, and you knew that I had control over an element, you would guess that I was fire, because I'm bright red."

She glanced back at Gwen. She was dragging behind the three wolves, but had decided to tag along, if only for the company. The pale wolf looked up and caught Emily staring at her, the fire wolf continued glaring deep into her eyes. As a wolf, Emily knew that to look away would be submitting to Gwen.

"I don't suppose you've noticed," stated Sandy, "but we're speaking out loud, in English!"

"Oh yeah, that's proper weird!" exclaimed Mike, "I thought wolves couldn't talk."

"Mike, that is easily the dumbest thing you have ever said," Emily scorned, "Of course wolves couldn't talk when you were a human! We probably can't understand what humans say now, but that doesn't mean that they can't talk! It's just wolves mostly talk silently, like tail wagging, ear moving, baring their teeth... though they do bark... and growl...and howl out loud," reasoned Emily.

"D'you know what, Em?" asked Mike, "You really know a lot about wolves."

Emily blushed, her red face going even more crimson.

"Hardly, I now wish I know more, it would be so useful. Anyway, they used to be my favourite animals. When I was tiny, we used to have a big dog that looked a bit like a wolf," Emily lowered her head.

"I miss our parents," said Sandy.

"Me too," agreed Mike sadly, "How 'bout you, Em?"

"Not really," shrugged Emily.

"What d'you mean, not really?" Sandy looked puzzled.

"Just don't."

Mike turned to looked at Emily; "why not? They're your parents aren't they?"

"Yeah, obviously. I just don't miss them much, I could never really relate to them much. They never seemed to understand..." Emily trailed off, and shook her head, "Anyway, I'd prefer to be wolf than human any day."

"Right..." Mike frowned, "anyway, I reckon our parents have organised, like... a search party for us! Y'know; posters with 'have you seen this person?' on them, updates on the news, letters..." trailed Mike.

Emily's eyes widened, she looked horrified.

"God! Do I hope not! If they were (somehow) to trace our old selves to us, it'd be horrible! Like that big warehouse-research place we were in! But worse! Like those disgusting animal testing things! On us! The whole world will want to know our life stories to work out how we changed! Then, when they've worked it out, they'll start experimenting on kids, trying to turn them into rats or something!"

"Hmmm... didn't think of that..."

"Well-!"

"Okay, okay! Get over it! Think of something else!" Sandy said. She was silent for a moment and thought, "...Ooh! I know! Why are our eyes the same as they were when we were human?"

"Our eyes?" questioned Emily, confused.

"Yeah, yeah! Aren't wolf eyes supposed to be kinda goldy? My eyes are still hazel, Mikes are still blue and I reckon Gwen's always were bluey-grey, like her! What about you, Em? Were your eyes always... Bright green?" asked Sandy.

"Yeah! Actually they were! This, in addition, is kind of weird, because all your eyes,"- Emily gestured to the rest of her pack- "are a similar colour to yourselves. Like, Sandy is earth and has brown eyes, Mike is water and has blue eyes, Gwen is air and has grey eyes and randomly, I'm fire and have green eyes," They were all silent for a moment until Emily said: "You know, Sandy, you were talking 'bout us talking in English. I don't reckon that we actually are, I mean, watch me as I say this... Can you actually see my mouth moving?"

"Nooo... not really," answered Sandy.

"It just comes up in our heads, as if we were talking! We, normal (kinda) kids from normal places are talking telepathically!" Mike was excited about this.

"Umm, you lot," interrupted Gwen for the first time, "might it have occurred to you that the people from that research place you keep on talking about... are tracking us? Trying to hunt us down? To people like them we're all pretty valuable creatures, scientifically and moneywise, I mean, we're humans that suddenly for some unknown reason turned into wolves! They're not just going to let us go, are they?"

"Gwen's right," said Sandy, "those men could be after us. One of us should get rid of our tracks. The dratted rain makes the mud show them more easily."

"Sandy you could grow grass over them," suggested Mike.

"But she'd get really tired if she's continually using her magic, she could even faint on us, and we don't really have time to stand around and wait for her to revive..." Emily answered.

No-one noticed the twig crack, the muffled cursing. Not even sharp-eared Emily heard the footsteps creeping up behind them in the midst of their argument.

Not until it was too late.

***

"What was that?" hissed Emily, interrupting Sandy mid-sentence.

"What was what?" queried Mike.

"Something just whizzed over my head, I felt the wind, and it was going fast. It's probably in that tree."

Emily led Mike and Sandy over to inspect the tree in question. When then reached the sight that met them there made them gasp in horror.

"Bloody hell! How did they find us?"

It was a tranquiliser dart.

The wolves stood stupefied for a few seconds. Leave scuttled along the ground beneath them, it started to drizzle down miserably. Emily shuddered, damn rain.

Gwen screamed. Emily and the twins whipped around to see her struggling against a thick net and the three men operating it. She snarled and snapped at a black leather gloved hand trying to pinion her. The fire wolf started forwards with a roar of anger, but found herself likewise attacked. A tall, thick, black-clad man had thrown a weighted net over her whilst she was distracted with Gwen. But the men hesitated to pounce when they saw her lift her lip and snarl, baring her teeth and growling ominously, her eyes starting to glow an angry red, boding doom for anyone brave or foolish to try and take her.

By this time all four wolves were netted. Sandy was sobbing silently from underneath the dark mesh, Mike was snapping desperately at anyone who came too close, Gwen was thrashing about trying franticly to free herself and Emily simply stood there with her hackles up, daring somebody to come near her. The men started unloading cages from the back of a large camouflage van hidden among the tree (at this, Emily cursed; how the hell had they not heard that coming?). They went for Sandy first, she seemed to have simply given up, hauling her across the forest floor and bundling her, net and all into a grey barred enclosure.

Next was Mike, who had halted fighting and was just lying on the ground with the netting piled on top of and all around him, heaving heavy breathes. When the black clad men dragged their cages together, he turned his back on his sister so she couldn't so she couldn't see the tears that slid down his long blue muzzle, his eyes glowing a soft blue.

The men seemed to have given up attempting to restrain Gwen within her net. A man loaded his gun with a dart, and shot her in the neck. Emily cried out as Gwen swayed for a second, before collapsing, and she twitched only very feebly as the men dragged her to a crate. They tried the same trick on Emily. As the dart gun was trained on the red wolf, she glared hideously at the man, and then transferred her murderous gaze to the gun in his gloved hands. It flushed red with heat. The wolves that were still conscious all jumped as the man screamed shrilly as his hands burned and tried to drop his weapon, but the rapidly heating metal stuck to his leather gloves for a second.

Then a moment later six dark streaks pelted from within the forest and ripped out the throat of the closest man.

They were wolves and, seeing their comrade slaughtered by them, the black clothed men ran straight to the van, leaving a row of three cages and a bloody corpse in their leeway and making a fast getaway; risking their lives hadn't been in the job description.

Emily saw the six wolves approaching through the mesh of the net. They looked down her, huge and intimidating; they would have been about a quarter bigger than her even if she had been standing at her full height. Pressed down against the ground, she wasn't in a very dominant position, so she growled as fiercely as she could, eyes smouldering fire-red.

"You're coming with us," said a dark grey wolf.

***

"Fight the pain," ordered the deep voice.

Furor shook, trying to rid himself of the booming voice like a wet dog after a bath.

"Control your anger," instructed the voice, "direct it to what I want you to do."

Furor glared with black eyes up at the huge silhouette. It snarled threateningly, the low light glinting off his curved fangs and his brief moment of rebellion was snuffed out like a candle in a strong wind.

He closed his eyes and wrinkled his brow in concentration. Then all traces of anger and frustration left his face, and he was abruptly calm, like the eye of a storm. He let out a shrill howl. When he opened his eyes, the result he had been waiting for was finally there.


	6. Chapter 6

"What do you want?" growled Emily.

"To help you," said the first wolf, simply. He was a dark, dark grey, not quite black, but not far of it. He had on white paw (his front left one) and the tip of his tail was white also, as if it had been dipped into a pot of paint. He had a sprinkling of white decorating his shoulders, like a mantle of un-melted snowflakes and bright yellow eyes.

"Where will you take us?" Emily asked, warily.

"To help," he answered.

And with that the six wolves started to drag off the heavy net. When the thing was off, Emily stood for a second, before immediately running to the row of cages in which her pack was enclosed. Sandy and Mike were sitting up, watching. Sandy whined, hopefully, but Michael just watched, with veiled eyes that had lost their blue glow, revealing no emotion.

"How can I get you out?" asked Emily, she only asked the siblings because Gwen was still out cold.

"Is there a padlock?" asked Mike coldly.

"Yeah, I can't open it with paws!" she answered.

"Melt it."

"What? How-I don't know how to melt things!" stammered Emily.

"Liar," spat Mike, with conviction.

"But-"

"You heated that mans gun," piped Sandy, "If you can heat things, then you can melt them!"

"I'll- I'll try..."

Emily looked at the heavy padlock on Mike's cage, hopelessly. She had no idea how to begin. She tried to recapture the emotion that had controlled her so completely as the man aimed to shoot her. It was a raw hatred, hot and spicy; it made her want to push it away, but it filled her with power and this time, she welcomed it.

Emily growled, pouring all the hatred into her growl. As the growl progressed the lock on Mike's cage grew red, then white hot and sang with the blazing heat. Emily became aware that the six wolves, with Snowy-Shoulders at the lead, were watching her carefully, but without alarm or surprise.

After a few minutes of heating the metal, Emily snapped at the lock, growing frustrated, and it melted into the grass, becoming a blob of slowly hardening metal. Mike looked at Emily, guardedly, through the net and bars of the cage.

"I didn't think you would be able do that," he stated.

"Nor I," panted Emily. It was a lot harder then she had thought, her shoulders were heaving and, if she had been human, perspiration would have been dripping down from her forehead and she would be shaking with exhaustion. As it was, the only thing dripping from Emily's fur was the rainwater.

"I'm sorry, Sandy. I don't think that I'll be able to do that for another good half hour."

"Don't worry. I don't mind, as long as I get out in the end!" Sandy replied, only half joking.

"You did well."

Emily started, and spun around to face the larger wolf pack.

"I've never heard of an Elemental so young with so much control, especially fire..." said another wolf. She was pale grey with a black patch over one dark brown eye, almost like a dog.

The stranger wolves gazed on warily. By now Mike had got out of the cage and struggled from underneath the black mesh.

"Um... HELLO! It might have escaped you lot's notice but my sister and friend are still locked up in cages!" Mike reminded them loudly. There was a strange note in his voice, Emily thought, more than just vexation. Was it simply worry, for his twin and Gwen? Or was it resentment, at the compliments that she was receiving, and he was not?

And, what is an Elemental?

"Michael, I said I wasn't strong enough to free Sandy and Gwen yet!" Emily snapped.

Gwen stirred.

"Oww," she mumbled, "My head..."

Mike flew to her side.

"Are you alright?"

"Umm... Dunno..."

"Tranquiliser'll wear off soon, don't you worry," comforted Mike. Emily felt an uncomfortable twinge of déjà vu as she recognised the way Mike had reassured her when they had first met.

"I think I can handle Sandy now," Emily said abruptly, but not without irony, who was jealous now?

The red wolf pulled herself together and set about freeing Sandy in the same way as she had with Michael. She did manage to melt the green wolf's lock, with a more strenuous effort then previously. But when she had finished, Emily collapsed with fatigue.

"Oh... I don't think I'll be able to free you at all, Gwen... I'm sorry... I'm too... _weak_."

Michael huffed with irritation, and Emily snapped her head round to bare her teeth at him.

"Don't worry, that's alright," said Gwen quickly. She had woken fully now. "I think I've worked out a way how to get out."

"How?" queried Emily.

"Y'know you and Mike said that you could pass through things that were of your element?"

"He told you about that?" said Emily, tightening her jaw.

"Yeah?" answered Mike curiously.

"I wanna try that."

Michael and Emily looked at each other in mystification. It was one thing to pass through something hot or wet, but how can you get something windy?

Gwen howled and a strong wind picked up, howling back and ruffling the thick fur of the ten wolves. Sandy braced herself against the airstream. Gwen stopped howling but the gale didn't halt, she closed her eyes in concentration. As soon as she opened them they were a harder, as if she were infuriated, a brighter blue, and Guinevere dissolved into the wind, as if she was a sand sculpture. She simply wasn't present for a few moments.

"I did it!"

The wolves spun on the spot to see her appear again, behind them, looking ecstatic.

A few of the stranger wolves shifted uneasily.

"These wolves are so young, but are as powerful as the full grown Elementals," muttered a female black wolf with bright golden eyes to the pale female with the marking over her eye. _Elemental_. There it was. That word again. What did it mean?

"Now, you come with us," said a muscular, brownish male wolf with dark markings down his back and a white tail tip.

"Why?" argued Gwen, aggressively, "We don't know if we can trust you."

"Right," said a plain wolf with typical grey markings, "The choices are: you come with us and we take you to the safety and instruction of a strong pack-"

"Or you stay here, starving, until the men from WolfCo come for you, completely your decision," said the last animal, creamy white young male.

"We'll come with you," said Sandy and Mike in unison.

***

An egg shaped life form was floating in front of Furor's nose. It was about ten inches high. It flowed slightly, translucent white and rippling like water.

The droplet flushed an angry red and started to thrash around, like a wild animal caught in a cage.

"_Stop_," hissed Furor.

The drop froze and morphed into a soft sea-green. It started to sing softly. A strange, haunting melody, sad and high and rich was meaning and intelligence.

"You understand it?" asked the deep voice.

Furor nodded silently.

"Bring it to its shape."

Furor nodded again, closed his eyes, he began to hum quietly. His tune grew louder, rising and ebbing. His song accompanied that of the droplet, supporting it and supplementing the melody, twining the two harmonies until it was not possible to tell who was producing which notes.

The droplet wavered for a moment and halted its song. Furor continued to hum, coaxing a new shape from it. It expanded, as if it was breathing, and continued to grow. It's green colour changed into a dark, storm-grey, and four stumps of legs seemed to push out from the original form. A head rose out of the grey mass and a long whipping tail. The creature now swelled to the size of a small horse, filling the space with its new form. Furor halted his singing, abruptly.

The immense wolf stretched its paws, flexing its lethal claws. It had a huge mane of thick wiry grey hair and cruel curved teeth. Its tail was like no wolfs, extraordinarily long and tapered at the end until an arrowhead that was edged with vicious spikes at the end.

It roared suddenly, shaking out its grey fur and unfurling for the first time colossal, dirty brown dragon wings. It beat them violently, bending the sinister pine trees that shrieked in protest and sending Furor flying several feet.

The black silhouette that commanded the deep voice growled in greeting. The huge creature snarled jeeringly at him. The dark shape out from underneath the dark tree and snapped at the monster. Furor shrank back in horror and fear, seeing it for the first time. He was also a gargantuan dragon-canine. Only bigger.

"Master?" inquired Furor, without looking up at the fiends that towered over him.

The bigger creature turned to the now pitifully small looking wolf.

"You did well," rumbled Sarrhg, leader of the Nagalzi.

***

They were in a tunnel. It was clammy, wet and stank of stale air and mould. It was like an underground cave system with stalagmites growing form the floor and stalactites protruding from the ceiling, the subway would have been very cold, dark and miserable, if it weren't for Emily and something strange that happened with the colourful wolves.

Emily, being a creature of fire, emitted heat like a mobile radiator, which warmed the cold wolves without her having to torch the entire tunnel; this was something they were grateful for.

And strangely the previously dark, dank passageway was illuminated brightly and beautifully just by the presence of Emily's pack. It happened as soon as she entered the cave; her vision flickered like a bulb coming into life. Straight from the emerald eyes of the crimson wolf poured a flood of light. The glow was a warm red and glimmered like flames on the walls around them.

Slightly later, the same strange occurrence happened with Mike and Sandy simultaneously. From Michaels eyes shone a blue luminance that rippled like the light seen on the bottom of a swimming pool. Sandy's beam was a soft green gleam, like when sunlight is filtered through young leaves in a summer forest. The illumination from Gwen's eyes was powerful; it was comparable to the sky during a storm, when the sky is heavy with clouds and dark and when the sun was covered.

The stranger wolves were awestruck by the clear display of elemental power, some gazed at the dancing flames, some watched the rippling water, some gawked at the twinkling leaves and some the flashing storm.

The wolf with gold eyes and Snowy-Shoulders exchanged an uneasy glance.

"That witch-light is a sign of unused power. So much that it leaks through the eyes. It could draw Them like vultures to carrion," muttered Snowy-Shoulders, he looked around warily, then dropped his deep voice even lower, "And maybe even _Her_."

Gold-Eyes gasped in shock and horror. Emily whipped her head around and narrowed her eyes at her, dimming the fire-light. Gold-Eyes composed her face into a look of calmness, but as soon as Emily turned back to look ahead again, her face resumed its anxious fear.

"We can't risk that happening-" she started to whisper.

"Stop!" shrieked the white wolf.


	7. Chapter 7

Emily stared, repulsed at the sight that had caused the white wolf to exclaim in horror.

It was a mangled wolf carcass. A large pool of time darkened and hardened blood caked the dirty floor all around the corpse. The decaying remains were filling the tunnel with a terrible stench that burned at the wolves sensitive noses.

There were writhing, pale maggots infesting the sockets where its eyes should be, and in places, sections of bleached bones and muscle were exposed, as if a hideous predator had torn bloody chunks out of the flesh. Most of the wolfs fur was missing, but what light grey fur there was, was so matted and soaked with dried blood that it might have been part of the rotting flesh. The muzzle had rotted away, baring the teeth in a grimace of terror.

The four young wolves stood together in a huddle in the corner, appalled, casting fearful glances at the mutilated corpse and stranger wolves, who were howling pitifully and mourning the dead wolf. It seemed that it was from their own pack.

Snowy-Shoulders and Gold-Eye were sitting together. Gold-Eye was whining pathetically. Emily moved around to them discreetly to listen in, anything to keep away from the carcass.

"...Raeda, we couldn't have known..." murmured Snowy-Shoulders soothingly. "Somnia (Emily assumed that this was the dead wolf) knew someone had to make sure no-one followed us, she knew the risk," the golden eyed wolf, who Snowy-Shoulders had referred to as Raeda, shook her head and whined wretchedly, "Look, she isn't just a skeleton, they could still be here. Pull yourself together Raeda; we need to get the Elementals out of here. I'm surprised that the Nagalzi dared come here, I'm sure they knew this is thelair of the Arackarn..."

Emily skulked back to her small pack with a puzzled frown on her furry face. What were Nagalzi? The word seemed familiar, like trying to remember a fuzzy dream. And, what did Nagalzi have to do with dead Somnia? Lastly, what were Arackarn?

"Was'sup?" asked Mike.

"I don't think that they're telling us everything that we need to know. We're as involved in this as they are," mused Emily.

"How come?" questioned Sandy.

"I keep hearing the wolf with the white speckles on his shoulders and the one with the gold eyes muttering to each other about loads of random weird stuff. 'Nagalzi' and 'Arackarn', they talk about them like they're bad, _really_ bad, and the 'Nagalzi' thing seems familiar from somewhere. I've got no idea what they mean, but if there's danger, we should know about it. Strange names... Have any of you guys heard of them?"

"No... but they sound like something out of _Lord of the Rings_," laughed Sandy, "Nagalzi especially."

"Yeah! Y'know. The Black Riders. Nazguls. Nagalzi," exclaimed Mike, the three girls looked at each other with raised eyebrows, "You following?"

Sandy rolled her eyes.

"No, Michael," Gwen said patronisingly. "No girl in their right mind follows anything to do with anything in _Lord of the Rings_!"

Then they all laughed. Mike pretended to pout indignantly, and it looked so stupid on a wolf that they all laughed harder, so hard that it hurt. Emily gasped, trying to breathe through the hysterics.

The laughter stopped abruptly as the six stranger wolves approached, glaring at them vehemently. The four friends sat down quietly, but Sandy started giggling again until she was cut short by a poisonous look from Raeda. The glower was so full of violent intent and hatred that Emily conspicuously moved in between the feral wolf and her green friend. If looks could kill, Sandy would be pushing up the daisies.

Snowy-Shoulders seated himself at the head of the circle that the wolves had formed, tucking his furred tail over his paws neatly. From his position and the respectful way the other wolves looked at him, without staring into his eyes, it seemed to Emily that he was the alpha male, the leader of the pack.

"We need a wolf to scout ahead for us," he said. His voice was different talking to the pack then it was talking to Raeda, maybe she was alpha female. It was now deeper, stronger, more confident. Definitely alpha. "We need a scout to check that the main tunnel is safe. Free from any infestations that may hinder us. Also to find any trace of Somnia's murderer," at the mention of Somnia, Raeda whimpered pitifully, looking down. "Do no fear Raeda. We will avenge your sister." It seemed that Raeda was so devastated by Somnias death because she was her _sister_.

"Thank you, Degue," murmured Raeda. Emily was slightly panicked, she was awful at remembering names.

"Do we have a volunteer to send as scout?" asked Degue, "As you can see..." here he hesitated for a moment, "there is a certain... risk to this."Emily almost made a sarcastic comment, what an understatement. She noted that he never said 'I', but referred to the pack as a 'we', as if was one single organism.

The brown wolf with the white tipped tail nodded his snout.

"I volunteer."

"Thank you, Harche,"

White-Tip (known now as Harche) dipped his snout again. He was obviously the strong silent type.

"You should set out immediately; it would not do for the Nagalzi to have their claws upon such a powerful set of young Elementals," Degue said, smiling broadly at Emily, Mike, Sandy and Gwen. Emily then realised with a jolt, hat_ they_ were the Elementals. Elemental was the name for a wolf with power over the elements. Of course. Now that she'd realised, it seemed stupid that she'd ever wondered. One question down... many still to go... hmm... Nagalzi again.

Emily looked up and saw that Degue was still smiling down at them, but the smile was more strained now, more intimidating then friendly. She understood then what he wanted, she forced a grimace back at him, but Sandy sighed, and she was sure her attempt was feeble.

Degue released the Elementals from his full attention and nodded to Harche to leave. He then stood and bounded out of the circle that was lit by the eyes of the elemental wolves and disappeared into the gloom of the tunnel. Emily frowned after him; why did Nagalzi seem familiar?

"Well, now that we're all a little safer, maybe we should introduce ourselves fully?" said Degue.

***

By the end of the introduction, Emily's head was a whirl of names. The names she knew: Degue, the grey alpha with white speckling his shoulders, Raeda, the black alpha with gold eyes and Harche the brown wolf that had gone to scout, together with the three new names: the white furred male was Oesto, the nondescript grey was Felix, he was the lowest ranking wolf in the pack; the omega, and the pale grey female with the black patch over her eye was Pocha.

Emily, Mike, Sandy and Gwen told everyone their names and started to get an idea of what each wolf was like. Emily thought she would get on with Felix; he was cheerful, despite being lowest ranking wolf; he knew he would always eat, only last, and that the other pack members did really care about him. He was their jester; he took away their anger and made them laugh. Raeda was serious and always thought of the pack before herself. Oesto was the youngest in the pack, he playful and a bit of an idiot, still learning about pack-life. Pocha was soft and caring, she was the packs beta (second in command) and was Harche's sister, he was also beta.

Emily was trying to focus on making positive relationships with the pack, but it was clear to see that Sandy and Raeda were not going to get on. Not at all. It didn't take a genius to guess what Raeda was thinking about; it showed on her face, Somnia, when her expression was heart-wrenchingly mournful, or the green wolf, when it was a murderous glare. She seemed to think that this was not a time to laugh. Perhaps, Emily acknowledged, she was right. Sandy had laughed, but so had the others, still, Raeda had no problem with Emily, Michael or Gwen.

After their long day, the Elementals were exhausted. All of the wolves had laid down in two separate huddles; the pack of six, missing Harche, and the little pack of four. They had moved out of sight of the corpse and collapsed in the corner of the cave. Emily was lying next to Sandy and Gwen; the twins were talking quietly with Guinevere listening without comment. But Emily barely heard them, not only because of the earth-quaking snores coming from Degue's general direction, she was trying to work out why the name Nagalzi was familiar to her. Why? She fretted for a few minutes until her mind drifted, she started thinking about Furor, how were they going to help him when they had been taken by the more powerful pack? She shuddered, imagining Degue's reaction if she said that they needed to leave them. And then she realised.

"Ohmygod!"

"What?" hissed Sandy. Mike and Gwen were staring at her with the 'maybe she's crazy after all' look. Emily stared back with wide eyes, caught in the momentum of her epiphany.

"What?" urged Mike.

"Nagalzi! Of _course_!"

"Yes- we don't know what they are!" said Gwen, rolling her eyes. And so she is suddenly struck with the answer like a meteor from space, the grey wolf thought, what a drama queen.

"I do!" whispered Emily.

The wolves stared at her.

"My dreams! About Furor and..." she gulped. "There were these... well, giant wolves! But, like _dragon_ wolves! With _huge_ black wings, spines and a long tail."

Mike and Sandy gasped with horror. Gwen sighed and tutted.

"Dragon wolves. Right. What the hell have you been taking while we weren't looking?" asked Gwen sarcastically.

"I'm being serious, Gwen!"

"Of _course_! Dragon wolves! Aren't they ALWAYS the answer to everything?" she answered patronisingly.

But Mike and Sandy knew Emily better, either that or they were very gullible, and believed everything.

"So... we know what nagalzi are. And we know that another Elemental is with them. Probably in mortal danger. We should tell Degue. The pack'll want to know," Sandy mused.

"Wait 'till tomorrow. It's late. Lets' get some sleep, I reckon it'll be a long day tomorrow," Mike yawned.

"God, you say that like it's possible with Degue around," answered Sandy.

Emily snorted, about to comment, but they were already asleep.

PRONOUNCIATION

Degue- deh- goo- eh

Raeda- ree- dah

Harche- har- cheh

Oesto- eest- oh

Pocha- po- sha ('po' rhymes with low)

Felix- fee- licks


	8. Chapter 8

"Emily."

"Emily. _Emily._ Wake up," Mike called to her. Emily opened her eyes wearily.

"What do you want, Mike?" she yawned. "I'm tired. Five more minutes."

"Emily, we need to keep on going, Harche has just got back. He says it's all clear."

That woke her up. Emily sprang up to her feet. Everyone else was waiting to depart. It was a lot simpler going somewhere as a wolf, when you were human, it takes ages to get ready, getting dressed, brushing teeth, showering, breakfast. When you were a wolf you just got up and went. Although, of course, that gave you less time to really wake up, Emily felt like she was still asleep with her eyes open.

"Sorry," muttered Emily, embarrassed. "I'm a deep sleeper."

Felix laughed. He skipped over and nudged her.

"Come on, young Elemental, we have far to travel."

"Yes," agreed Degue. "This tunnel continues for many more miles."

They moved on forwards, with Degue leading, trotting continuously through miles of cave, their way illuminated by the eyes of the Elementals. The wolves passed the time by trying to see shapes in the light, like optical illusions. Felix said he saw a little human in Emily's fire. She laughed and told him that small humans were called children. She then found then that when she concentrated, that she could make shapes in the firelight, showing a fascinated Felix different pictures from her old life.

"It's strange, I can't imagine, what's like to walk on two feet? Don't you fall over without a tail? Why do you sleep inside? Do you get cold with no fur? How do your dens stay light inside when it's night? You keep other animals in your dens! Why?" His questions seemed to go on forever.

Then he asked why humans' paws were so strange, she laughed and teased:

"We don't have to pick things up with our mouths, trust me, it's a lot easier with hands, and thumbs."

He laughed with her and said:

"You humans really are strange creatures."

At that Raeda growled and sprang at him, pushing him over. He whined apologetically and tucked his tail under, smiling sheepishly up at her. She stood over him, her growl vibrating through her chest.

"Don't forget your place, omega," she snarled. Raeda loped back to join the rest of the pack, who had just carried on walking, it seemed that spats like this happened often. Emily frowned after her, then turned to look at Felix, who was cringing into the floor.

"She's right, I was forgetting my place within the pack," he sighed.

"Why must there be an omega?"

"It's important for the stability of the pack. The pack is more important than any one wolf. I'm just not used to my new role." He seemed to be waiting for something.

"Get up Felix," she sighed.

"Thanks."

"Weren't you always omega, then?"

"Oh, no! Before me it was-" he cut off and was suddenly mute.

"Somnia?" asked Emily gently.

Felix nodded wordlessly, he lowered his head miserably.

"She was great fun, always made us laugh. She _never_ forgot her place,"

"Don't worry, Felix. Let's catch them up, shall we?"

"Yeah, always look at the bright side, huh? At least I'm not-" he cut off again.

"Come on, I'll race you," suggested Emily.

"Yeah!"

They sprinted the rest of the way up to the pack; they were pretty much the same speed. Emily teased that her nose had led the way. Felix laughed. But quietly now, not as carefree as before, with his head still lowered, he darted a cautious look at Raeda.

"Look! Look what I can do!" Sandy exclaimed excitedly, like a small child. She concentrated for a moment and a squirrel darted across the leaves formed from her eyes. The wolves laughed and Mike said:

"I want a go!" He made a small fish swim into view. It was alone only for a few seconds before a piranha appeared and ripped it to shreds. The piranha was soon followed by a shark that swallowed it whole, then an enormous shadow fell over the shark and it was bitten in two by a killer whale which then swam away.

"I can do better!" sang Gwen and a flock of white eagles soared across the sky.

"Eagles are powerful birds," nodded Degue.

"You try Emily!" said Mike.

Emily lifted her eyebrow tauntingly, and closed her eyes. The wolves heard a deep rumbling and Emily opened her eyes, they glowed a deep crimson. She turned to look at the fire light. An immense dragon tore its way from the flames, roared and beat its wings. The wolves stopped and stared, Degue and Raeda exchanged an awed glance.

The dragon took off and launched out of the fire and flew into a shocked Gwen's sky.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

The dragon danced among the clouds for a few seconds, chasing the eagles, until the sky darkened and the clouds grouped and greyed and the serpent was struck by a bolt of white lightning. It fell, smoking, down into Sandy's forest. She narrowed her eyes at Emily. The dragon stood and looked around, it seemed disorientated.

The wolves heard a snapping and growling sound until suddenly a mirror wolf pack appeared in Sandy's forest, the wolves attacked the dragon, ripping rather unsuccessfully at the creatures armoured skin. The black dragon drew itself up, breathed in and spat out a cone of flames. The wolves ran.

"Emily! You torched my forest! Make it come back!" snarled Sandy indignantly.

"Sorry, I didn't actually mean that to happen! Sorry! Umm... try closing your eyes and imagining it back to normal," suggested Emily sheepishly.

Sandy did so, then opened her eyes. The fire was out, but the forest was completely black and burnt.

"Damn it, Emily! How could you do that? It's ruined!"

"I'm sorry," Emily meant it. And with that, the dragon launched itself into the air and dove into the depths of Mikes sea; where in floundered for a few moments, gasped, and sank out of view. The four Elementals stood glowering at each other. On one side; a sad Sandy, an indignant Michael and an angry Gwen. On the other, a regretful Emily.

The other wolves looked on warily. It seemed that they knew the risks of being too close to Elementals with conflicting emotions. Felix stood slightly further back, not facing the wolves. He looked down the length of the murky tunnel. His ears went back and he shrank back in horror.

"Oh, no. Please. No."

"What is it, Felix?" called Pocha.

Degue turned and faced the subordinate wolf.

"What's happened?"

"Look," Felix was whimpering in terror.

Degue looked up at the tunnel roof.

"Oh, no," he murmured and his whisper was echoed around most of his pack.

There was a large spider's web in the corner of the cave.

The Elementals looked at each other and muttered in confusion. A spider's web? Was that all? Degue looked like a tough kind of wolf, was a spider's web all it took to faze him?

"Felix? I know it's a bit of a biggie, but... It's only a spiders web, you... you don't need to be all scared," reassured Emily.

Felix shook his head wordlessly.

"Harche!" barked Degue. "What do you call this?!"

"Sir-" stammered Harche. "Sir, we must have come down the wrong tunnel. That... _thing_ wasn't there yesterday; I don't know where it came from..."

So it seemed that wolves were scared of spiders. Emily shrugged, well, she wasn't.

"Damn it all, Harche!" roared Degue. "Is _this _what you call scouting! I thought that we could trust you! Do you realise what this means! What you're risking! A _whole generation_ of Elementals and our entire pack! You fool!"

He launched himself at Harche, growling menacingly and pinning him to the ground.

"Degue!" Raeda barked sharply. "This won't help! Not now! It's too late, what is done is done, we need to get out of here, fast!"

"You're right, as always," Degue sighed, he shot one burning look at Harche. "Let's go."

"Degue, what is going on?" asked Emily.

"Just come on. And be quiet."

The Elementals followed silently, their argument forgotten. They had never seen such a fuss over a spider's web.

But, as they walked on, their horror mounted. The tunnels walls were plastered with a thick wallpaper of enormous cobwebs, such a size that dwarfed a truck.

Pocha was sobbing quietly, Oesto was trying to comfort her quietly, but his soothing was hardly effective because his voice shook with terror. Felix was hyperventilating; his tail was right between his legs. A stone clattered the tunnel floor and all the wolves jumped. The cave air was fat with the stench of fear. The Elementals were padding along silently, they still didn't understand.

Emily shot a look back at Felix who was dragging along behind, casting panicked in all directions, with his ears glued to his head. She went back to him and asked:

"Felix, what's going on? What's the matter?"

"I'm scared, Emily," he whimpered.

"Don't worry, it'll be okay," she soothed.

"You don't know _why_ I'm scared," Felix glanced back.

"Then tell me, no-one's told us anything!"

Felix looked back at her, opening his mouth as if to say something. His eyes widened and he froze.

Emily looked back at him. What was behind her?

Felix screamed, breaking the silence of the cave and shooting forwards at his full speed. The pack looked back at him just in time to be bowled over by the petrified omega wolf.

Felix shrieked as he ran: "ARACKARN!"

Out of the darkness sprang a behemoth of a black tarantula. It was the size of a small horse, with gleaming black mandibles that were slick with venom dripped as it snapped it's jaws menacingly. Its six eyes shone red, bright with primeval bloodlust and its eight thick haired legs were heavily muscled, built to run down prey.

Emily was frozen with fear. She had never been afraid of spiders per se, but when she thought of spiders, she saw the brown fellows that scuttled out of the bath plug, not bloody monsters that were bigger than a car.

"Run!" roared Degue.

All of the wolves followed his advice. But Emily's legs had locked, they wouldn't obey her command. _Run!_ She screamed at them. The eight-legged fiend approached slowly, maw snapping maliciously. Emily screamed for real then, turned and sprinted after the rapidly disappearing wolves. She bolted through the tunnel, speeding low to the ground, her legs a crimson blur beneath her. She heard the monster scuttling behind her; she could hear its joints clicking.

Emily looked back on her pursuer and shrieked with fear. The arachnid was quicker than it would have seemed possible. It was right behind her. The fiend snapped its mandibles at her tail, spraying her back legs with thick, black, tar-like venom.

She felt the effect immediately. Her pelt sizzled at contact and she groaned in pain as the poison attacked her muscles. Her back legs shook and faltered worryingly and started to give way.

_Oh no,_ she moaned,_ Please, lord, don't give up on me now._

The tunnel was getting lighter. Emily knew the end was near; for both her and the cave system.

She saw the cave mouth and her legs started to buckle. The fiendish tarantula lunged at her; she acted out of complete desperation. She tried to leap to safety, but the strain was too much for her destroyed back legs, they sank slightly and Emily slowed. But the buckling of her legs made the spider miss its lunge; the vicious jaws only shaved the top of her back rather than impaling her. Her legs shrieked in protest to her overuse of speed, the injury on her back flared with pain.

Emily looked up and saw her pack waiting for her about a hundred meters from the exit. Although the stranger pack that she had begun to trust was disappearing over the horizon, it warmed her heart to see that her friends had not abandoned her. This warmth gave her the boost of energy and strength to depart from the gloomy cave.

Emily's hopes lifted as she exited the tunnel, if she could make it to the tree line the spider was too large to fit between the trunks, she could survive! But, before she was ten meters clear of the cave, she collapsed. She completely lost the use of her back legs. Using her front paws she scrabbled at the dirt, trying desperately to drag herself to safety. Emily looked forwards to see her pack rush forwards to her aid, the shrink back with a new shock and horror.

She saw the monster rear up. Emily closed her eyes tightly, unable to watch death approach.

She heard a sudden bang, a bone chilling squeal, like fingernails on a blackboard, another bang and a thump that reverberated through the ground. Emily opened her eyes in confusion. By her tail was a mass of black twitching spider.

Emily looked up and saw only a mess of black clad figures reach down to her before the venom stole her consciousness, and she sank into darkness.


	9. Chapter 9

Emily drifted in and out of consciousness. The world was blurry, the sound were fuzzy, unclear as if she were underwater. The only thing that was clear was the pain. It was still excruciating. She opened her eyes for a moment and saw that she was being brought into a huge building. She tried to shift her limbs, ignoring their ache, they felt cramped, but she was strapped down onto a form of stretcher. She felt strangely weak and dizzy.

Emily tried to raise her head to get a better glimpse of her surroundings. She saw that around her were black-clad men struggling with apparently heavy, growling cages. Emily felt that she should know what was contained in them and that she should be worried about their contents, but, she truly had no clue, her head felt light and suddenly there was a sharp pain in the base of her neck and she lapsed into the darkness again...

...

Emily's eyelids felt like ton weights, but she was determined to lift them, despite her agony, she fought with them for awhile, and won the mental battle. Her stretcher was being rushed through a maze of corridors dotted with doors.

Right, left, right, right, left, right, left, left, right and through a set of wider shiny, steel doors. As the doors swung open Emily saw a cage set on the grey floor with a heap of yellow and blue fur inside it. The pile leapt up seeing them enter and arranged itself into a wolf that barked excitedly, but her brain was too scrambled to understand what it was saying. She saw her accompanying cages set down next to the one containing the blue and yellow fur. Emily sensed that the strangely coloured wolf should mean something to her but; again, she didn't understand what. She was rushed through another set of doors. The pain was unbearable to fight for too long, she faded out again...

...

Emily was awoken by an erratic beeping. It was annoying. The petty complaint was weak against her hurting but it cut right to her easily broken attention. She tried to look around. She was lying on a high silver table, she had something strange things attached to her; they looked like tubes and wires, they were linked to various meters, one was a drip, she didn't understand what many of the others were...

Emily found the source of the irregular beeping to be a heart meter. Its unsteadiness worried her, but her head wasn't clear enough to tell why, fogged by pain...

A man wearing a long green lab coat entered the room and, seeing her awake, rushed to her side. He had bright grey hair. He frowned, creasing lines around his eyes. He ran his fingers through her fur, sighed and injected something into the drip. The pain was cut and she thought it must have been painkillers, until she felt strangely dizzy and fell into the darkness once more...

***

Emily awoke.

The first thing she noticed was the absence of pain. It was strange for her, after being in pain constantly for... she didn't know how long. Also, everything was clear. She heard every sound perfectly and every sight was crystal clear. She breathed in deeply through her nose. The scent ruined it really. She could smell perfectly well, but the building had a tainted, chemical smell that burned her nose horribly, it stank of humans as well, at this high concentration the scent was really rather unpleasant. She laughed at this, she'd been a wolf for only a few days and she already thought that humans smelt bad.

Emily was in a metal crate. Unlike her previous encounters with humans, it wasn't a barred enclosure, but a solid metal carry crate, designed to transport, not hold. She couldn't see very much out of it, the only ventilation holes were high up. Emily could only see the dull white ceiling and one of the humans carrying the crate, but she couldn't get up to see further out because crate was really too cramped to stand up in. She was going to have to be content with her destination being a mystery, at least for now.

And strangely, Emily was content. She wasn't worried about anything, although she had the nagging suspicion deep in her stomach that told her she should be terrified. She took a deep snuff of air through her sensitive nose and, although she wrinkled it in distaste towards the stink of the building, her whole demeanour changed. She could smell wolves! She took in another draught of air. Four wolves, three she recognised. Sniff. It was Sandy, Mike and Gwen and... one other.

Emily started shifting in her crate, barking excitedly. One of the two humans carrying the crate snarled something at her. She jolted, freezing suddenly. She went over what the human had said in her mind; maybe he had said it too fast? No, he hadn't. Emily didn't know what he'd said. She couldn't understand his voice. She'd only spent a few days as a wolf and couldn't understand the language that she had spoken for most of her life. She whimpered with shock and horror. The human snarled back. She didn't understand it, it wasn't like it sounded like the made up dialects that young children create; it was like an English person listening to someone speaking Japanese, she just couldn't comprehend it. But, she could guess the general message he was trying to put across by his tone and the scent of irritation that wafted from his skin. Her nose seemed able to pick the smells of emotions, this would be useful. It seemed the snarling human meant for her to shut up. How rude. Emily was affronted, well if he wanted to be nasty, two could play at that game, and as she well knew, her anger was a lot more dangerous than any stupid human's.

Emily started to growl softly. The quiet sound built slowly, growing louder and louder. She focused her attention on the handle of the crate that the snarling human was holding onto. She made sure that the growl was aimed only at that particular man, there was a quiet little man holding onto the other handle, he occasionally shot disapproving glances at the snarling man. Although she couldn't see it, the huge man grimaced with discomfort that his scent told Emily he was feeling. She smirked, who was laughing now? She barked and the heat that had been slowly building in the handle flared suddenly and the man yelled; dropping the heavy crate on the little mans foot, who yelled back.

Emily was jolted uncomfortably, but it seemed to be worth it, she heard running footsteps. A human face peered into the ventilation; it was the man with the grey hair who had treated her. She looked up at him with full awareness. He looked down at her for a while, then turned and started shouting at the snarling human. But Emily hardly heard the bellowing humans. As she had landed, she had realised all was not well. The jolt had sent a twinge down her lower back and back legs. She tried to shift them and shrieked in pain. The argument of the two humans cut out suddenly. Emily couldn't move them. She hadn't regained the use of them. Emily started to panic, she was hyperventilating and she scrabbled franticly in her crate with her front paws, trying desperately to escape. Its tightness, lack of air and her inability to move her lower body bought on a rare bought of claustrophobia in Emily. She whined and barked, scratching at the crate, trying to throw her weight against it in a desperate attempt to free herself.

Through a loud rushing noise in her ears, Emily heard concerned barking from a nearby room; her brain was too scrambled by fear to understand what. The humans babbled worriedly, fiddling with the crate and trying to open it. They succeeded in opening the door and Emily swung around and banged her head on the metal side of the crate with a resounding clang. She saw the door open and her head fell against the floor in a dead faint.


	10. Chapter 10

"Emily. Are you awake?"

Emily opened her eyes and stared straight into wide blue eyes that were only inches from her face.

"She's awake!" exclaimed Mike.

She raised her head and shook it, to clear it. She saw a green smudge out of the corner of her eye and looked round to see Sandy looking down at her, warm brown eyes filled with concern.

"Emily, are you okay?" asked Sandy worriedly. She then saw Emily's unimpressed expression and said: "Sorry, stupid question; what's wrong? We all heard you panicking yesterday. What happened?"

"Yesterday?" Emily stopped and thought in confusion. "That was a whole day ago?"

"Yes, and before that you were out for a week," murmured Mike. "Well, we're guessing it's been a week because of the lights and darks, they turn off the lights at 'night'. That's how we know the days because, as you can see; there are no windows."

At this, Emily had a proper look around. The room they were in was about ten by seven meters, it was painted white, and as Mike had mentioned, there were no windows. The floor was covered with a thick layer of newspaper and over that dirt, twigs, leaves and other sorts of woodland debris to give a sort of 'forest' look. There was even a fake tree in the corner and under that a tiny wooden hut for a makeshift den.

Although the mock woodland had been obviously erected for the wolves comfort, after living in a real forest with a pack of wolves, this small, white room was a bitter mockery of her former habitat. It seemed to Emily to be a jeering taunt rather than a comfort, although the woody smell covered up that of the harsh chemicals. Another problem with the natural look was a large mirror that took up half of the longer wall. There was something strange about that mirror; she could hear faint whispering coming from it... She would steer clear of it. Then Emily thought:

"Mike, Sandy, where's Gwen? I can smell her, but where is she?"

"Oh, she's still asleep in the hut, with..." Mike paused and very obviously changed the subject. "We spend most of our time sleeping; there isn't much else to do."

"Is it morning then?"

"I reckon. They've just turned on the lights. We slept 'outside' with you, after yesterday they brought you in, you were still quite heavily under, I guess they left you here to recover from your faint," explained Mike.

"I swear I faint too often for my own good, I probably have brain damage," muttered Emily.

The wolves sniggered.

Mike said: "Nah, I think it's 'cos so many people are out to get you." He laughed for a moment, then stopped, looking at her thoughtfully.

"What are you looking at?" accused Emily.

"Nothing." Sandy and Mike said together, quickly. Sandy hurriedly changed the subject

"What happened yesterday, Emily?" asked Sandy gently.

"I had a sudden realisation," said Emily bitterly. "I'm arachnophobic."

Mike and Sandy gazed warily, neither laughed.

"The ...spider's venom affected my legs worse than I thought. I was in a little carry crate and there was a nasty human yelling at me. So, you know me and what I'm like, I heat the handle he was holding on to. He yells and drops the crate. I got jolted and I realised that something was wrong. I couldn't feel my legs. I had a panic attack, I couldn't move or breathe and there was no space, I swung around when the humans opened the door, trying to get out, but I banged my head on the crate," somehow saying it out loud made it feel worse for Emily.

"You- You can't move your legs?" hissed Mike.

"No."

"Try, they might have got better!" urged Sandy.

"No, it hurts! Really bad," begged Emily. "I don't want to, it's bad."

"But-"

"What's going on?"

The earth and water wolves turned round, except for Emily who just looked over her shoulder, desperate to avoid the painful twinge that was set off by movement. Gwen was standing looking at them, and behind her was a bright yellow wolf. He was such a bright colour; he seemed to glow with a white luminescence. On the end of every dazzling hair was a vivid blue tip that seemed to stand up on end, giving the wolf a bushed out effect. His fur crackled with static.

"Emily?" asked Gwen.

Emily smiled.

"Emily! You're alright!"

Gwen loped over to her. She got to the red wolf and looked down at her sprawled out on the imitation woodland floor, puzzled.

"Aren't you going to stand up and say hi?"

"I can't."

"Why-" she stopped, gasped and said: "Emily, what _happened_ to your legs?"

Mike and Sandy sighed and looked at each other, rolling their eyes.

"Guinevere, the queen of tact," sighed Sandy.

Emily frowned, concerned. She turned her head to see what had caused Gwen to cry out and the thing that the twins had tried to keep from her.

Her entire lower back was raw. There was no crimson red fur protecting her legs. Her skin was so scabbed and bloody that it looked like dry mud; there were oozing sores that hadn't healed over yet that caked her hide, from the small of her back to the base of her tail.

"This is after a week?!" Emily gasped in horror.

Her pack was also clearly dismayed. Gwen hung her head in shame, she hadn't thought about what she was saying and now Emily was paying the price. The yellow wolf wrinkled his muzzle in a grimace of disgust; he was obviously repulsed by the gory nature of Emily's skin.

"Will this heal? It's so bad..."

"Was that what the... spider did?" questioned Gwen quietly.

Emily nodded, speechless. She was drowning, submerged in horror. Would she ever regain use of her legs? And if she didn't, how could they escape? She looked up, and caught the yellow wolf looking intently down at her. He looked away immediately and blushed under his glimmering fur; it was beyond rude for a wolf to stare at another.

"Who's this?" questioned Emily, hostile. She glared, but her look was a challenge.

"Um..."

"Well, what happened was..."

"Well?"

"I'm Ty," spoke the glistening yellow wolf. "Hi, I've been waiting to meet you for ages."

"Have you now? That's interesting. "

"Yes, Mike, Sandy and Gwen have been telling me all about you."

Emily turned to look accusingly back at them.

"But Em, we think he's one of us!" protested Mike.

"I think I'll be the one to decide that," snarled Emily. "As you know everything there is to know about us, tell me about you."

Mike and Sandy rolled their eyes.

The wolves heard footsteps come stomping down the corridor outside. Ty suddenly stiffened and whined.

"It's them! Get into the hut!" he hissed

Mike and Sandy turned back to look worriedly back at Emily, she stared back, angry at Ty and confused by their fear. Gwen had already returned to the small hut and was hiding in the corner with Ty.

"Come on! Quick, they're nearly here!" he hissed.

The twins looked torn for a moment, then ran for the cover, leaving Emily worried and confused in their wake.

"What's going on?"

Two humans slammed open the door. One was the black-clad snarling man carrying a mysterious briefcase. Emily had a chance to see him properly. He was looked like most of the people here, wearing all black, with dark trousers, leather gloves, a midnight jumper and shirt, he was _huge_. He was more like a mountain than a man, with his light hair cropped back to his head. He looked intimidating now. Emily desperately hoped that he didn't hold grudges; or else she was dead.

The other human was the man in the green coat with the friendly lined face and grey hair. He looked warily around the room, to clock the five wolf's locations. He didn't seem surprised that the four able-bodied wolves were cowering in the hut. This made Emily concerned; what had they done to earn a pack of wolves fear? He looked down at the red wolf on the newspaper-strewn floor at his feet; she was slowly trying to edge away from him with her front paws. He gestured to the towering man beside him, who brought forwards the black briefcase. He opened it and Emily saw it was holding all sorts of medical equipment; syringes, small bottles, swabs, that sort of thing.

The older human said something to the snarling man and pointed at Emily. There was a growl and Mike and Sandy were instantly at her side; standing on either side of her, their chests rumbling. The man in the green coat sighed and the human wearing black pulled a gun from his pocket and pointed it at the protective wolves. They stood there for a moment, then retreated slowly, but only to the fake tree.

The man outstretched a gloved hand towards the red wolf. She shrank back into the floor, wincing and snarling shakily, in an attempt to warn the huge man away. He seized her by the scruff of her neck and lifted her into the air with ease. Emily cried out in shock and Mike and Sandy howled mournfully. The last thing Emily saw before the door slammed was rain start to fall from within the room.


	11. Chapter 11

Emily groaned. Her head ached... She looked around and started, she was back in the white room. Why did that surprise her? She tried to remember what had happened last time she was conscious... She had been forced out of this very room, hmmm. Her legs ached; it felt like she hadn't used them for too long. She stretched them fully, exulting in the smooth pull of her wolf muscles.

Emily froze, mid-stretch.

Her back legs worked. She was moving them. They were moving as well as her front paws.

The red wolf raised her head and sang out joyfully, rejoicing in their movement. There was a satisfied rustling from behind her. She whipped around to see the green coated man leave the room. She ignored him, he was gone now. Suddenly, a quartet of furry faces popped out of the little shelter. Sandy and Michael sprinted over to her (not that 'over to her' was very far to sprint).

"Emily!"

"My legs are working!"

"No way!"

"Yeah way!"

"Awesome!"

They all howled, revelling in Emily's ability. The crimson wolf would never again take movement for granted. Mike and Emily's happiness seemed to cause no damage, but an enormous tree exploded through the floor, toppling its fake ditto. The wolves laughed at Sandy, who was blushing underneath her green fur.

"Sorry about that."

"Hah, there's nothing to be sorry about, one more tree is always a good thing." Emily laughed.

Gwen approached, smiling happily.

"Nice tree, Sandy. I'm glad you're not in pain anymore, Emily."

"Damn, so am I!"

She laughed gladly, her face relaxing. It seemed that she had been more concerned then she had let on.

Ty advanced carefully.

"Congratulations," he said quietly.

Emily snorted.

"You sound absolutely ecstatic about it," sneered Emily sarcastically.

"Earlier on, you wanted to know more about me..."

"How long ago was 'earlier on', exactly?"

Sandy answered: "About half the day ago, roughly. They dragged you out, you were out there for about ten minutes, dunno what they were doing..."

Mike continued: "Then they brought you back in. You were out of it. Again!"

"Shut up! I can't help it if people enjoy tranquilising me, putting me under anaesthetic and knocking me out!" she laughed back.

"Do you need me to show you what I do?" interjected Ty politely.

Emily stopped laughing abruptly, then nodded sharply.

"Um... you should probably go... stand back I mean."

Emily snorted patronisingly.

"Seriously, Em," said Sandy. "He's not joking. He nearly toasted Gwen last time."

Emily frowned, but retreated a few paces.

"You toast people as well? I thought that that was my job."

The luminous wolf smirked. He braced himself, grinned excitedly and howled. His exclamation pierced the wolves through, Emily shuddered, the sound crackled with danger. There were shouts of panic from the mirror that took up one of the walls. The wolves turned and looked at it, confused.

"I knew there was something weird going on with that mirror..." murmured Sandy, Mike nodded.

The glass shook and trembled, then shattered, flinging shards of reflective glass at the wolves. A bolt of white lightning erupted from the hole left by the mirror. There was a room behind it! The mirror had been two-way, allowing the humans to snoop on them. A woman cowered in her seat for a moment seeing the glowering wolves, then dashed for the door. The Elementals reverted their attention to Ty. The lightning had pierced his hide, leaving no damage. Emily narrowed her eyes.

Ty was glowing. His fur stood completely on end, waving like grass in the wind and spitting sparks of static. Emily and the other wolves felt their fur bush out, almost as if the pale wolf was a charged balloon. His eyes, which were previously bright blue, were blazing yellow and he let loose another howl that rent the air. A bolt of electricity released itself from him and struck the newspaper floor, leaving a scorched mark.

Emily was staring at the black burn-mark on the floor.

"Well... That's me. "

Emily stared for a moment longer.

"I'm, for lack of a better term, shocked."

The wolves all laughed together. Ty was accepted into the pack.

"Welcome," smiled Emily.

"He would have had to come with us anyway," tutted Gwen.

"True," grinned Mike.

"Guys, this is the part where we try to escape from this room by the gaping hole left by a lack of mirror," smirked Ty.

"Good idea!"

The wolves looked at the gap in the wall. It was about two feet up the wall. Emily put her front paws up onto the ledge and peered into the dark room on the other side, it appeared vacant. She scrambled up the white barrier and down into the electronic filled space, all of the computers seemed to be dead, no doubt a result of Ty's bolt. He leapt nimbly up next to her.

"It's easier to take electricity from where it already is, then actually make it, making it uses more energy," he explained.

"I guess it would be," she answered.

"Come on you lot!" she called down to Mike, Sandy and Gwen. The blue wolf laughed and took a running jump over the wall, landing softly with the two other wolves.

"Come on, sis! Slow, as usual!" taunted Sandy's sibling. She narrowed her eyes at him and rushed herself over the barrier, making a bit of a mess of it in her haste. Gwen leapt up after, following suit.

"Right, through the door!" called Emily.

She skipped up to it. It was shut tight. She scratched at it, trying to push it open.

"Emily, it's a pull door," snorted Gwen, pointing to the sign on the door saying "PULL TO OPEN."

Emily blushed.

"Yeah, I knew that!"

"_Sure,_" she said sarcastically.

Emily stretched her paw up to try and push down the handle. She scrabbled at it for a while and gave up.

"Emily, we don't have all day!" said Sandy worriedly. "The humans will come back soon!"

"Right now, door! This is no more Miss Nice Wolf!"

Emily threw back her head angrily and howled. The door burst into flames and was incinerated quickly, collapsing in a heap of flaming black ashes. She howled again and the fire was extinguished. Ty looked impressed, and Emily remembered that he hadn't seen her use her powers before. She leapt through the black portal.

"Come on!"

The other Elementals laughed and stepped through into a wide, white-painted corridor. It was filled with humans rushing to and fro. There was a wide crowd of humans staring, flabbergasted at the burnt down door. When the wolves emerged they gasped, but it wasn't until Emily snarled that they ran. A woman screamed and the wolves hurtled down the passage. Humans ran in all directions, panicking. They were going to escape! The wolves saw an open door and ran through that, hoping for an exit and skidded to a halt.

There was a thick semicircle of black-clad men, each bearing an outstretched gun that was aimed at each of the escaped wolves' skulls.

They turned to run out the door through which they came and halted. There were more armed humans outside the door. They were trapped.

"Crap."

One of the humans said something incomprehensible. The wolves looked at each other warily. Sandy was suddenly seized from behind, she screamed and Mike was also secured. Each of the wolves were grabbed quickly and efficiently. Emily had her scruff grasped by her very favourite human in the world; the snarling man grasped one oversized hand over her jaw as he secured a muzzle over her snapping teeth.

Every one of the wolves had a sturdy gag pinning their jaws together. Emily shook her head violently, growling as her captor clipped a chain to the muzzle, building on her indignity. The wolves were all snarling in disgust.

The men frogmarched the desperate wolves, tugging and snapping through the mesh, down the long corridor. Many humans stopped and gawked at the bright wolves trying to escape. They were stopped at a new door, different to the one that had contained them for too long. The door swung open.

The room was dark, and was furnished like a bedroom in a normal house. The wolves stopped in confusion. There was a computer on a desk in the corner, and sitting typing at it was a human. He turned.

"Hey," came the voice in their heads, "I'm Ricki."


	12. Chapter 12

The wolves froze.

The human named Ricki muttered something incomprehensible to the black clad men that had escorted them to the darkened room. They nodded respectfully and lead the five bewildered animals to a row of crates that had been laid out thoughtfully in the corner. The cages were more hospitable than the barren grey metal of their previous encounters with enclosures, a worn blanket and threadbare pillow were twisted into contorted shapes making a softer seating for the bemused and anxious wolves. They were too baffled to protest, just followed as simple and meek as a trained Labrador.

"What's going on?" whispered Sandy desperately. She looked like she was about to burst into tears, Emily didn't even know if wolves _could_ cry.

"How can he speak to us?" murmured Gwen urgently. Mike shook his head, too upset to speak, Emily knew how he felt. They were caged, again.

Ricki nodded to the men who were standing deferentially against the wall, the gesture was a clear dismissal. The hulking men walked out without a further word, leaving the desperately confused and still muzzled wolves staring after them. Ty whimpered, the low whine slipping through his control. Emily didn't dare say anything with the man who could- she assumed- hear them.

As the men shut the door, Ricki turned and looked down at the five caged wolves.

"So, I meet you all at last. I've heard so much about you."

"Who are you?" Mike blurted.

"I told you, I'm Ricki. But never mind me; you're the interesting ones here. I've been told about some pretty strange occurrences going on around you lot; I can't imagine how they could have happened. In one of our warehouses, where it seemed to have been recently raining inside the building, there was suddenly a fire, killing two men and completely destroying the place. The burnt ruins are now completely overrun with ivy. In the mud outside the building there were seen the tracks of three wolves escaping the area."

Emily, Mike and Sandy looked at each other and gulped.

"There have been reports of a school in a certain area losing its' roof to, what they are calling, a freak tornado. Soon after the event, a wolf was seen exiting the building and making for the nearest tree cover."

The wolves looked at Gwen with raised eyebrows. The pale wolf blushed and lowered her head ashamedly. She muttered something quietly, it sounded like: "It wasn't my fault."

"I heard from someone that the electricity was wiped out from a few streets when a pylon was struck by lightning, bizarrely, the sky had been completely clear seconds before the event. Strangely enough a witness saw a wolf running from the scene then also. What a coincidence that there had been wolves at all of these incidences.

I know that there have been six disappearances recently. Many witnesses, mostly young people like you said that they saw these people transform. Rather spectacularly, in one case, a whole playground of teenagers saw a red-haired girl turn into a wolf."

Emily frowned, looking down at her paws. "What was the name of the 'witness' that told you about that?"

Ricki cocked his head, looking down at Emily with a small smile curving his lips. "Her name was Chloe."

Emily bared her teeth, shaking silently. How could Chloe have told them? She'd already done enough damage, but now it seems that it was Chloe's fault that she was here, Chloe's fault that these people had taken them away! She snarled under her breath, "I hate that girl so much. You can't even imagine."

Her eyes started to glow, turning red.

"Emily. Emily, calm down!" Sandy whispered urgently. Emily nodded franticly, she breathed in deeply. Her eyes faded slowly back to green. She smiled in satisfaction; she was getting better at controlling her temper.

"Emily, huh?" asked Ricki. "How coincidental, the girl who disappeared was called Emily. So, I think I can safely assume that I am also holding an audience with Michael, Sandy, Guinevere and Ty." Ricki smiled again with great self-satisfaction.

"As I was saying, shortly after this girl turns into a wolf and runs away howling, a fire springs up in the playground, even though it had been raining the previous day, and the ground was wet."

Emily frowned, confused. When she had first changed, there had been no fire! How could one have started when she hadn't started it? She had howled, she remembered, that could have triggered it. But she hadn't been angry then. Could she start fires without being angry?

"So many strange happenings. I suppose that it would be too much to hope that you five could tell me anything about them?" Ricki paused for effect, gazing at the wolves. They said nothing, staring at him mutinously. "I guess not. I'll tell you what else I know. A woman called an ambulance after hitting a teenager crossing the road. She said to the medics that the boy just ran out. At a later date, she told us that there had been another boy standing on the pavement as his friend had been hit; who had screamed in despair and collapsed to the ground. After a great deal of persuasion, she admitted that she saw the boy turn into a wolf. And that the wolf had been blue."

The wolves turned to look at Mike. He said nothing, but the others could see that he was shaking with grief. Sandy whined. She hated seeing her brother in pain.

"Who?" she asked.

"Sam," whimpered Mike, "he died. He was killed instantly. Yes, he ran out. He didn't even stop, look, think? But she was driving too fast. Far too fast."

Ricki gazed at Mike thoughtfully for a second, clearly re-ordering his thoughts.

"But still," Ricki continued after a tactful pause, "What I know, doesn't quite fit in with the evidence I see before my eyes. There are six stories, there is more than just you five."

Emily pricked her ears, interested. The wolves looked around at each other with wide eyes of speculation.

"I see I have your attention now. So, suppose that I said that I wouldn't tell you anything about this sixth case, until you tell me what I want to know, would you comply?"

Emily looked at the other wolves warily, then back at Ricki.

"What do you want to know?"

Ricki smiled. "Everything."

"Well, suppose that_ I_ said that _I _wouldn't tell you anything about what you want to know, unless you told us what we want to know?"

Ricki raised his eyebrows, smile gone. He pursed his lips.

"Fire away."

Emily smirked.

"What is Wolf Co? What does it do? Why do you need us?"

"Wolf Co. is a company that was set up a couple of decades ago by the manager, a certain Mr John Edwards. It investigates why, somehow, every few years, a bunch of kids get turned into wolves. We need you to help us find the cure."

Emily frowned. "The cure to what?"

"The cure to your condition."

All the wolves snarled.

"We don't have a condition," they all growled in unison.

"You are supposed to be human."

Emily snorted. "Clearly, we're supposed to be wolves, as, I don't know whether you've noticed, WE ARE WOLVES!"

Ricki leaned forwards in his chair, about to comment, when there was a knock at the door. He sat back.

"Come in," he called.

The door opened, and standing in the doorway was a woman. Emily raised her brows; she was unlike any woman that she had ever seen. She was tall and very pale skinned. Her hair was long, curly, auburn and tied back in a bun. She had deep green eyes that matched the suit jacket and skirt she was wearing. She was beautiful. But the strangest aspect of her was her tattoos. They were deep red and looked like some sort of tribal design. They were on her face, but they must have covered the rest of her body, as Emily could see that her right hand was entirely red, and her left had large red circles extending from her wrist. She was carrying five bowls on a tray and she looked absolutely petrified.

She muttered something to Ricki, and then looked at the five wolves staring at her. She smiled radiantly, her face lighting up with some great hope. Ricki raised one eyebrow, bemused.

He said to the wolves: "This is Aleah. She'll be working with us here too, because she has a rather unusual talent, don't you?" Without waiting for Aleahs reply, Ricki said: "Aleah can talk telepathically also. But she's new, so you better be more polite to her then you have been to me."

Aleah pursed her lips. "Hello," she said, her voice shaking, but Emily couldn't tell with what. And she set down the bowls near the wolves cages, looking at Ricki in disgust.

Mike spoke up for the first time, looking outraged. "That's not for us, is it?!"

Ricki tilted his head to one side.

"I am NOT eating DOG FOOD!"

Aleah grinned, pulling a smug, 'I told you so' look at Ricki, who scowled. Aleah picked up the bowls and left, leaving the wolves staring after her.

Emily looked at Ricki with distaste. "How can you speak to us?"

"I used to be a wolf."

The wolves jaws dropped.

"You? A wolf?"

"Yeah, I became one when I was about your age."

"But, then why are you human?" frowned Mike.

"Wolf Co. rescued me; they made me what I was supposed to be again."

"So did you have any powers? Were you an Elemental?" blurted Mike.

Emily shot a 'shut up quick' look at Mike, but it was too late. Sandy turned round and stabbed him with her eyes. Mike winced.

"Powers?" Ricki said quickly.

"Sorry, I was... umm..."

"Sorry, Mike's tired. We all are: I don't think he quite knows what he's saying. Do you, Mike?" Emily said loudly over him.

Ricki looked at her carefully. Emily smiled sweetly. Ricki snorted, and let it drop. For now. And the 'for now' was very clear in the heavy silence that followed.

"Ok, now. I'm going to take you guys to have a... blood test. To make sure that- you didn't pick up any infections while you were wandering around in the forest."

The wolves frowned sceptically. Emily snorted.

"Wow, that's late; you've had us here for ages! How long exactly?"

"About four days," piped Mike

"- And most of that time, personally, I've been out of it anyway!" continued Emily.

"I can see that you aren't going to cooperate-"

"Too right we're not!" snorted Gwen.

Ricki narrowed his eyes. He turned round on his chair, tapped a few keys on his computer and murmured something into a speaker. He swung around to face them again, a smug smile gracing his face. The wolves looked at each other warily, Emily tensed, preparing to use her fire if she needed to, she saw the others doing the same.

The door opened. It was those black-clad men again. Emily snarled. Behind the men came in the green-coated man, the one who had treated her when she was dying. Ricki muttered something to the men, the green-coated man nodded, clearly in agreement. The men started towards Emily. They opened the cage door and Emily sprang out, but was seized by her muzzle and pinned down by a hulking man. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the green-coated man preparing some sort of injection. Emily nearly groaned out loud, not again! He came towards her wielding the needle; she thrashed around desperately, trying to free herself. She felt the needle in the back of her neck, and felt immediately dizzy. She felt so nauseous, like the fire that had been burning in her veins since she had changed into a wolf was being doused out.

The last thing that she saw was Aleah, standing in the doorway, looking furious. Murderously, viciously angry.


	13. Chapter 13

Emily woke with a start. She threw the covers off of the bed she was in and ran to the toilet, feeling like she was about to throw up. She paused over the toilet and vomited loudly into it. She groaned; feeling awful. She reached out with her hand to flush the chain. And stopped. Stopped dead.

A horrified gasp escaped from her throat. She walked over to the basin above the sink slowly, staggering like an old woman, her balance had gone haywire. It was easier to walk with four legs. Emily leaned heavily on the sink and stared into the mirror. It felt abnormal to see such a different face. Yet, nostalgic in a way. Strangely, it was far more of a shock for Wolf-Emily to find that she was human than it was for Human-Emily to find that she was a wolf. Being a wolf felt more natural, flowing. Her face was still made up of the same pale skin, with the light scattering of freckles over her nose. Her hair still fell a bright red over her shoulders, not dead straight, but not really wavy. Nothing had changed really, but somehow, everything had changed. Her sense of smell was stronger and she could hear everything, but obviously, you couldn't see that from the outside. She had changed superficially too. When she parted her lips and bared her teeth, they were curved and much sharper than they had been before, and when she raised her hand to touch her ears, they were longer. And pointed, like an elf.

Emily sighed. Back to being human. Her strange wolf holiday was over, already fading like a dream. Emily wondered; had she wanted to wake up? It was then that she realised that she wasn't wearing any clothes. Obviously she must have shrugged out of her school uniform when she first shifted into a wolf. Dammit. She walked back into the other room and sat on the bed, still feeling awful. There was a window far up high in the corner of the room; it was about double the size of a letter box. She couldn't see much through it, only the dark blue of a night sky and a part of a full moon, glowing mournfully. Emily started at that sliver of moon like it could whisk her back to her pack... where were they? Where they human also? What about the other pack? What were Felix and Degue doing now?

She paced the room a few times, looking around without seeing anything. She walked over to the door. There was no handle on her side of the door. She shook her head. She was so tired, it was no good thinking about this now, it was too late. Emily lay back down on the bed. It was lumpy and the sheets were rough, but this meant little, she ached all over. But, she thought laughinhly, this was understandable, her bones had twisted and changed and grown back into the bones of a human. She closed her eyes, and was gone in seconds.

It was morning when Emily woke again. She sat up and looked around the room she was in properly. Its walls were a soft beige with polished floorboards, the only furniture was a small table and a wardrobe in the corner. It was reasonably nice, if sparsely decorated. She stood up quickly, and immediately fell back down again. Emily frowned, she still felt very weak and nauseous... Or was that just what it was like to be human? She couldn't remember. It was strange to be human, she felt out of balance and lumpy, it felt so smooth and fluid to be a wolf. Emily tried to stand up again, slowly. She staggered forwards and caught herself on the edge of the table, she looked at its dull wooden surface, someone had left her some clothes. She snorted, how considerate of them.

She reached out to the mound of clothes with a pale hand, then stopped, thinking. She turned to the bathroom and turned the shower on, resting on the sink, waiting for the water to run hot. She picked up a towel, dropping it nearby and hummed absently, trying not to think of anything... but her thoughts always snuck back in. What now? So she was a wolf, but now she was a human again. Would she have to go back to school again? But, how could she? Half of the school had seen her change; no-one would ever talk to her. Emily felt loneliness rise up inside her like a bitter tide. She could never talk to any of her old school friends again. A single tear rolled down her cheek, leaving a gleaming silver track.

Emily shook her head madly, what was she crying about? That was no loss at all! Hadn't she spent most of her life wishing she never had to go back to school? She had never fit in; she'd never had any true friends... Amy had been the closest thing to a best friend, and she had just... Emily stopped that thought abruptly, that was no good! She resisted the un-cried tears that budded in her eyes, blinking furiously. For her, this was no longer a world that would accept weakness. Not as a wolf, not as a human.

Emily turned around to look in the mirror, but it had fogged over completely. She jerked; the shower had been running for ages! The room was filled with steam, hiding most things from view, she was finding it difficult to breathe in the thick, damp air, it dragged at her throat. Emily staggered towards the shower, sliding the curtain across. She stepped in and with an immense explosion of steam, the water hit her like a brick wall. It must have been boiling hot, but it felt like someone was pouring ice through her veins. She gasped raggedly, trying to drag oxygen into her starved lungs. Her vision flickered black at the edges and she fell to the floor of the shower, smacking her head against the wall. Bright lights popped in her eyes. She turned her head up to the torrent of merciless water, groping blindly up the wall, trying to find the switch to turn the shower off. She felt the round button with her finger; she could only just reach it. Her last dregs of strength went into pressing turning it.

Emily sat at the bottom of the shower, spasms shaking her body, water dripping from her hair down her grey face. What was that? Had the people keeping her here put something awful into the water? But why would they? They wanted them all alive, didn't they? So why would they try to kill her? It must have been something else. But, what else could have caused it? She felt so _cold_. She reached out with a shuddering arm to the towel she had left on the floor and wrapped it around herself, rocking. Was it something in the water? Or was it just the water? Water... fire? It didn't matter anyway... just don't go back into the water. Never the water. Emily buried her face in the towel, her body shaking as she sobbed into it.

She must have stayed there for at least half an hour, but eventually she pulled herself up weakly. She dried her hair roughly with the towel, then threw it into a basket in the corner of the room that still swirled with pearly steam. It had been stupid to shower, it seemed obvious now. She shrugged on the red t-shirt and jeans, slipping on the pair of trainers that so mysteriously fitted her. She wandered back into the bathroom and stared into the mirror again. She looked a mess. Her hair was tangled and frizzy and she had shadows under her eyes. Too bad they hadn't thought of leaving her a hairbrush, or even a toothbrush. She dragged her shaking fingers through her damp locks, trying to tease out some of the knots, then stopped, and laughed at herself. Who could see her anyway?

Most of that day, Emily sat on the edge of her bed, pushing away her thoughts and bitterness, trying to just stare at the blank wall in front of her. 'What now?' was her biggest assaulter. She shoved it away violently whenever it came, but it always returned. She didn't know what now. There was nothing ahead. Everything she had ever dreaded would happen if they were caught, now would happen. What of her pack? What of _her_? What could she do, how could she live? Everything had seemed to much more straightforward when she was a wolf, and she caught herself longing after that freedom often. After all, she could never be a wolf again; the brief, shining soap bubble had burst. How could she live happily, now that she had experienced something so much fuller? Not that it mattered. She would probably never leave this building. She was something huge scientifically, and they wouldn't want her wandering around in public. She supposed that it might be for the public's safety.

And then she wondered. She didn't look entirely human, with her pointed ears and teeth. What if she could still summon fire, water still affected her, didn't it? She remembered being effected by water as a wolf, she had always felt nauseous when it rained, which was often. Could she summon fire? And how? Obviously she couldn't howl anymore, the idea was laughable. She didn't think that she'd make herself popular by setting light to the small amount furniture.

Acting purely on instinct, she cupped her hands together and blew into them. A small flame ignited, only a little bigger than the light on a candle, but it was still fire! Emily was cheered immensely, watching the flame dancing merrily on her palm. She extended a finger and ran in through the little light, smiling. It didn't burn, but felt warm, warmer than she had felt all day. The warmth chased away the numbness that had covered her like a heavy, clammy coat. With the return of feeling, came another, more unwelcome sensation. She was starving. She hadn't eaten for two weeks, which was about how long she'd been a wolf. How was she even alive? She supposed that they had probably fed her intravenously while she had been out; she had been on a drip, hadn't she?

Still, Emily hadn't had an actual meal for so long. Her insides felt like a huge cave, empty and hollow. She'd probably start gnawing the bed or table soon. Well, there was no point just sitting there waiting, she decided to go back to sleep, she'd wake up when (she refused to think if) they brought food. She hadn't woken when they'd put the clothes in though... oh well, there was nothing else to do. She extinguished the flame with another blow and a wave of sadness and curled up on the bedcovers, fully clothed and felt herself slipping away...

She was woken by a sharp rapping sound. She looked up suddenly, and fell back onto the bed feeling dizzy. She was so hungry. It was wrong to be this hungry. Her stomach had been carved away and she felt as if all of her ribs must have been sticking out.

The knocking interrupted her self-absorption. She looked up again, more slowly and managed to stay up, looking around the room. The sound wasn't coming from the door, but seemed to be coming from the walls. She stood up shakily, and strode over to where that sound was coming from, kneeling down on the floor and laying her ear against the wall. She knocked on the wall gently and waited for a few seconds before knocking again, more insistently. She nearly fell over as knocking erupted from the other room; someone was knocking on the wall back at her! But why? Who would knock back? Or knock in the first place? If there was a human next door, she doubted that they'd be trying to communicate with her. She hardly dared believe it, but it must have been. One of the pack. Her pack. And wolves couldn't knock on walls, so they must have been human too. She suddenly felt so much less alone, and warmth blossomed in her chest.

She called softly; "Hello?" Her voice cracked, she hadn't used it for so long.

A voice called back, muffled by the wall; "Hey... who's there?"

"... Umm... Emily?"

"Really? Wow, it's so strange to hear your voice. So you're human too?"

"Yeah... but who is this?"

"Oh yeah, sorry, it's Gwen."

Typical. Her favourite pack member. But still, Emily's heart glowed at the sound of her voice.

"Woah. It's weird to hear you too." Emily had never wondered what the others looked like as humans before, but now she desperately wanted to know.

"So, how's life as a human showing up with you" said the wall, after an awkward pause.

"Pretty crap actually, I feel terrible, really sick, and dizzy."

"Yeah, same here, when I first got up I threw up really badly. I got such a shock when I looked in the mirror!"

"Hmm... do you look a bit strange? I mean, when I looked in the mirror, my ears were all pointy and so were my teeth."

"Yep, that was what happened to me too. I look wolfier than I did before, but I feel all wrong. Kind of, lumpy, you know? We were all so graceful as wolves."

Emily thought about that. She'd noticed the same thing as she was moving about, but had put it down to tiredness, could it have been humanness? But, more importantly than that, Emily needed to ask about the water.

"Hey, Gwen, have you had a shower?"

"Why, can you smell me from across the wall?"

"No, no. But if you haven't, don't. I think that there's something wrong with the water. It nearly killed me, nearly knocked me out. I felt really weak and sick." It was difficult to explain how horrible it had been to the wall.

"Really? I've had one. A shower, I mean. I feel fine. The shower felt wonderful, I haven't been properly clean since I became a wolf."

"Oh." Emily was a little disturbed by that, and her stomach echoed her thoughts, rumbling anxiously. "Gwen, talking of that, I'm starving, I haven't _eaten _since I first became a wolf."

"Woah! Why not, the rest of us have!"

"Oh." That was unfair; it was only she who was starving.

"I suppose that you weren't there when we were given food in the other room. It's amazing that you're still strong enough to move about! Oh yeah, you had just not hunted when I first saw you."

There was an awkward, if slightly embarrassed pause. Emily tried to gloss it over.

"Well, wolves can survive for over two weeks without food, and I was on a drip before, so they might have been feeding me through that?"

"Still-"

Emily never found out what else Gwen was going to say. There was a sound of footsteps on the other side of the wall, and some muffled sounds that could have been speaking. Emily was frozen with concern, she didn't particularly like Gwen, and talking was a little uncomfortable between them, but she was part of the pack and was kind of like family now. The sound of footsteps had moved out into the corridor outside Emily's room now, and got louder, then faded as it moved further away.

She stood up, stretching her legs from the cramp that had started to settle in them and started to pace the room, not that there was much space to pace. Where were they taking Gwen? Were they going to come for her too? She listened intently, if she concentrated, she could hear footsteps, but they were far off, coming closer. They had to be coming for her. She went to the far corner of the room, as if to hide their, but then realised that that was ridiculous, she could face whoever they sent for her. She could hear the footsteps louder now, and it took all of her courage not to bolt under the bed, hiding like a small child. Could she even fit under the bed? She was breathing rapidly, but shallowly. She didn't understand the sudden irrational panic that was erupting in her chest; her heart was beating like a rabbit's.

The footsteps came to a crescendo and stopped outside her door. And the door swung open to let in a huge figure. Were all of the people who worked for this stupid company massive? And did they always wear black? She looked at the man's face, and her heart sunk down to her stomach, it was the snarling man. She was suddenly furious.

"You!" she snarled.

The man looked shocked. "Do you know-" he said before quickly shutting himself up. He clearly wasn't supposed to be speaking to her. Emily realised that she was human, and wouldn't look anything like what she had as a wolf. But she was too angry to be thinking straight.

"What do you want with me now, huh? You going to inject me with something else? Knock me out? Turn me back into a wolf, just because you can? Shove me in another tiny cage?"

She paused, her heart thudding in her ears, glowering at the man who had been struck dumb. Her head slowly started to clear. This man probably didn't know that she could turn into a wolf. He probably didn't know anything about this.

"Ahhh..." she trailed awkwardly, shrinking.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" the man was still frozen in the doorway, looking completely surprised. Emily realised that none of the others had probably been stupid enough to shout at him about being a wolf.

"Do I?" he pressed. It was too late for her to take back her words.

"You were carrying me in a carry crate a few days ago."

The man paused and processed her words. Emily could almost hear the cogs whirring in his brain.

"A red wolf," she prompted him, but wasn't sure why, he'd probably hurt her, she had burnt him after all.

The man's eyes widened hugely, until she could see all of the whites around them.

"You-"

Another man appeared at the door. Surprise, surprise, he was just as huge as the snarling man. He paused to take in the scene before him. Emily thought that it must have looked pretty strange. A mountainous man frozen in shock before a small, rather skinny teenage girl.

"We going to take any longer? We were thinking of getting this done sometime today!" growled the new man, "she's only a little girl!"

He marched other to Emily, grabbing her shoulder and pushing her out of the room. She stumbled down the corridor, through a maze of corridors; she could hear the snarling man walking behind them, his footsteps unsteady. They turning so many times, she felt that would have been hopelessly lost if she'd had to go back. She felt her feet beginning to drag, her hunger was starting to affect her, she felt weak and shaky.

They finally reached their destination. The man opened the door in front of them and Emily realised that she had last come through this door on all fours. It was Ricki's room, and other than him, there were four teenagers sitting in there. For the first time, Emily saw her friend's human faces.


End file.
